


Girls und Panzer and the Wundermotor

by A_bored_writer_for_fun



Category: Girls und Panzer
Genre: Alternate History, Alternate Universe, Army, British Military, Dimension Travel, Gen, Gun Violence, Manga: Girls und Panzer: Ribbon Warrior, Military, Nazi Germany, Original Character(s), Science Fiction, Sensha-dou | Tankery, Soviet Union
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 14:01:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 40
Words: 79,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29208543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_bored_writer_for_fun/pseuds/A_bored_writer_for_fun
Summary: It's an ordinary day for Miho Nishizumi.  She's walking to Ooarai, thinking of what's next in her life of Sensha-do, the sport, and art of tanks, when a mysterious lightning strike occurs.  When she investigates she finds a German officer named Faber Eisenherz, and he's got a lot to say.Follow the girls of Girls und Panzer as they meet and interact with soldiers from a different time where WW2 is a whole lot different.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	1. How it all began:

**Author's Note:**

> The alternate-history that I have crossed over with Girls und Panzer is my own. It is called an alternate-history, but it's also quite sci-fi and fantastical, so if something weird pops up, pay it no mind.

“Surrender! You will not be harmed if you do!” From his UHLS Model 1, Willy, the Commander, shouted upwards at the towering German “tank”.

“We won’t! We swore to protect our Fatherland until it or we die!” Atop the tank's massive battleship turret stood a German Officer with an eyepatch covering his left eye. Behind him, one of his crewmen stood with an MG42 at the ready.

The crewman took a look at all the Americans, British, and Russians. It seemed that a mixed force of the Allies was here. “Kommandant Faber, we should leave. We’ll have to fight our way out anyways.”

“Be quiet Hans.” Faber turned down to Willy. “WE-!”

“Kommandant, the Wundermotor is malfunctioning!” said a distant voice from within the tank’s steel walls.

“WHAT!?” Faber and Hans jumped down from the turret, rushing to the Wundermotor, a large engine that Hitler said would power the German beast forever.

From the Commanding UHLS, Willy had enough time to shout a command of preparation before a blinding light from within the German tank swallowed the entire monstrosity and the Allied Unit.


	2. A deafening roar:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something quite odd occurs at Ooarai.

“Nishizumi-dono! Wanna go eat lunch together!” asked Yukari, a girl with curly thick brown hair. Her friend, Nishizumi Miho, a polite and cheerful girl, was walking down the road when Yukari sprung this on her. Quite literally, as Miho was just walking around the campus when Yukari jumped out of a bush and sprung the question on her.  
“U-Uh sure, Yukari!”  
“Miporin!”  
“Miho!”  
From behind, two of Miho’s other friends, the orange-haired Saori and the long black-haired Hana called out to her.  
“Ooh, hey you two!”  
It was then that all sound was drowned out by a sound that can only be described as if reality had split open like an egg, accompanied by what looked like some sort of lightning strike.  
Almost instinctively Miho crouched low to the ground, while many others froze or cowered in fear.  
“W-what was that!?” Saori had fallen to the ground in shock and fear. Hana jumped high but regained her quiet and composed demeanor in no time.  
Miho slowly stood up, and surveying her surroundings, pointed into the distance. “I think I saw that lightning strike from over there!” Miho began to run in the direction of the blast, but Yukari grabbed her hand.  
“Nishizumi-dono, wait! What if it’s something dangerous!?”  
“Well, that could be true. But what if someone’s been hurt?” Without another word, Miho ran off. A few seconds later, the others followed close behind. After a time of running, Miho stopped at where she thought she heard the sound. In front of her stood the tall, deep woodlands, shrouded in a canopy of darkness.


	3. Wo sind wir?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willy and Faber reawaken after the Wundermotor malfunctions

When Willy opened his eyes, he found himself laying down in the grass of a woods, surrounded by incredibly tall trees, and with thick canopies that blocked out most light except a few small beams, one of which shone directly into his eyes. Immediately the American threw himself upwards, looking around in every direction.

To his relief, his UHLS Model 1 and the 7 others-which were of various other models themselves-were all around, along with their crews. To Willy’s annoyance, the Germans and their “tank” were nearby as well.

“Oy, Eisenherz. What happened here?”

Faber was already pacing about, peering through the trees. “Our special engine malfunctioned.”

“What?”

“Hitler ordered the creation of a new engine to power the Landkreuzer…”  _ It wouldn’t really hurt to tell them.  _ “They created the Wundermotor, which is a sort of hybrid engine and generator.”

Willy sighed, looking at the aforementioned tank. “And somehow they accidentally created some sort of teleportation device?”

“Ja.” Faber climbed atop the Landkreuzer from the ladder, opening a hatch to go inside. “We found out from fiddling with it that it can teleport things far distances. Unfortunately it seems they also created a time machine or something.”

“What do you mean a time machine!? That’s the stuff you read in novels and shit!” One of Willy’s crewmen, an orange-haired British man named Owen yelled.

“I can tell. If you look just outside the woods you can see that technology seems much more advanced. But as I’ve most likely said before, I do not know  when or  where we are.”

“Why’re you telling us this anyways? I thought we were trying to blow each other to gibs earlier.”

Faber jumped down from the Landkreuzer. “Germany...We’re in an unwinnable war at this point. The reason me and the Eisenherzen haven’t surrendered is because we’re all worried about surrendering then being executed on the spot.”

Owen scratched his sideburns. “Well that’s awfully dark ain’t it?”

“Everything’s dark when you’re fighting in this war.”

Hans suddenly jumped into the air. “We have to hide the tanks. All of us.”

“W-what?” said an off-guard Owen.

“I heard someone getting close to the woods. We have to hide the tanks. Including you Allieds too!” Hans shouted, but somewhat quietly.

“The Germans are right. I hear someone coming.” one of Willy’s other crewmen said. Hopping into their UHLS, Willy and his men swiftly drove their tanks into a thick underbrush, and as their tanks were all painted green, it blended in perfectly. The Germans, however, had a bit of trouble hiding their Landkreuzer.

Faber thought to himself,  _ this is the one time I wish the Landkreuzer wasn’t so big! _ Luckily, through some miracle, they managed to disguise the Landkreuzer by covering it’s exposed parts with foliage, because somehow, the Landkreuzer was conveniently already covered mostly by foliage. Faber had just jumped down from covering the Ratte when he saw 4 pairs of eyes watching from a clump of bushes. By sheer instinct it was that Faber pulled his Walther P38 from it’s holster, and aimed it, shouting, “Wer ist da?!”


	4. Fragen und Antworten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miho meets some odd men.

“Miho, we should go, now.”

“What do you mean Hana?” squished underneath her friends, Miho had heard several men speaking both German and English, among a few other languages she didn’t recognize right away. To see Hana suddenly lose her composure was a shock.

Hana crept backwards, but Yukari whispered first, “The man in the officer's uniform. He’s got a gun trained on us.” Miho gasped in quiet shock, and she herself began to get up to run, when she heard:

**Snap**

Saori yelped, for she had broken a large stick whilst stepping backwards to get away from the German officer.

“Herauskommen[Come out]. Ich habe meine eigenen Fragen[I have my own questions too.]” 

To the shock of the others, Miho stood up, exposing herself to the German officer, and shockingly more, she said in almost perfect German, “Sind Sie vielleicht Ausländer?[Are you perhaps foreigners?]”

“[I think it’ll be easier to answer that question if you answer mine first.]” asked the officer. “[Where are we? To be precise, by country if you will.]”

As the two continued to converse, answering questions to each other, the other 3 were still lying down behind the bush, watching. “Amazing...I didn’t know Miporin spoke German!”

Yukari giggled. “Well, she did go to Kuromorimine! I’m guessing they teach German over there, since they’re the German themed school.”

Miho breathed in deeply. “[So what you’re saying is that you’re a Panzer Commander, who was brought here to Oorai by a malfunctioning engine?]”

“[At its essence, yes. Well, me and my crewmen too, along with some Allieds.]” Faber stopped and read Miho’s expression, which was one of both wonder and incredulity. “[Look, I know it all sounds absurd, but I’ll prove it! Have you ever heard of Faber Eisenherz?]

Yukari jumped forth from the bush, saying into Miho’s ear, “I’ve never heard of Faber Eisenherz before. Nishizumi-dono, we should go. He might just be some crazy guy.”

“I heard that.” grumbled Faber, and the two jumped.

“Wait, you speak Japanese?” exclaimed Yukari.

Faber tilted his head. “I do, just not very well. Adolf said after we win we’d go to Japan, but that’s most likely not going to happen. Back on topic, I’m not crazy, and have you really never heard of me?” saying this last part Faber pointed to his face whilst an expression of oncoming existential crisis crept onto his face.

The two Japanese schoolgirls looked at Faber, then at themselves. “We’ve never heard of anyone like that at all.” they both said. 

At this, Faber slumped onto the ground, muttering something along the lines of, “[Did the WunderMotor take us to another dimension? No, it can’t be that powerful, it only provides power for the Ratte. And teleports when tampered with.]”

Gulping, Miho carefully walked towards the German. “Are you ok? If that’s all true, then you’ll have to get home won’t you?”

Faber suddenly yelled in frustration, amazingly flipping backwards to a standing position, anger etched onto his features. “That’s the problem! I, we, don’t know how to get the Wundermotor to bring us back!” At this point, Saori and Hana had left the bushes.

Saori piped up for the first in a while. “Is the ‘Wundermotor’ responsible for this? I mean, if it brought you here, then there has to be a way to bring you back!”

Faber groaned again. “That’s the thing, we don’t know how and chances are we’ll be more paranoid of tampering with the WunderMotor.”

“Who’s we?” asked Yukari.

Realizing that he was speaking all alone, Faber turned around for a brief moment. “My crewmen and comrades. I told them earlier I’d do all the speaking since they don’t speak any other languages other than Japanese, although bringing that up it wouldn’t hurt too much to introduce them. But then again I did tell them to stay hidden.” this delved into muttering about what and what not to do in the current situation.

But Faber’s rambling was broken by Yukari asking something again. “You mentioned ‘the Ratte’ earlier, right? Are you referring to the 1000 ton tank that never left the blueprint stages?”

Faber scratched the skin around his eyepatch, which covered his left eye. “Maybe. I don’t think it’d be a good idea to confirm or deny that intel.” Stepping more into the sunlight, the 4 friends could finally see what Faber looked like. Faber was a tall man with a blue right eye, with his other being covered by the aforementioned eyepatch. He had short blonde hair in a sort of militaristic haircut, and some small scars on his face. His clothing seemed to be the biggest driving point of him being an  actual German Officer. Faber wore a long, floor-length black leather trench coat which was left unbuttoned in the chest, exposing underneath his army grey German officer’s uniform, topped off with a German Officer’s cap, reminiscent of the one worn by Erwin Rommel, although to the 4 girls from Oorai, they thought of their Sensha-do teammate Erwin, a history buff, who wore one such hat. He also wore black leather gloves that matched his trench coat.

However, it was what he wore around his neck that caused Yukari to gasp loudly and exclaim something unintelligible in excitement. Around his neck, pinned from the collar of his uniform, Faber wore...“T-that’s the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross.” Yukari uttered once her initial excitement died down. When the other girls asked what it was, Yukari replied, “It was a German Medal given to generals whose strategic decisions affected the course of the war, and it was only given once during WW2.” All throughout this Faber simply stood still, listening and when Yukari recited the meaning of the Grand Cross like a dictionary, surprising even himself, Faber smiled.

“I’m impressed you know what the Grand Cross is, er…”

“Yukari, mister Eisenherz.”

“Ah I see. I guess I’m in a different time completely then. You said that the Grand Cross was only given out once, correct?” Yukari nodded eagerly. “I see. Then if I’m not crazy or anything, then I’m from a different time. Based on what I’ve said, and the info all of you said, the WunderMotor brought me, my crewmen, and several Allieds to an alternate time or world, because first of all, you’ve said that you’ve never heard of me, despite that back home in Germany, my name is blared around in propaganda, and I also received the Grand Cross, but you, Yukari, said that only one person has received it in the war.”

Miho gulped. This was a lot of information to take in. “A-alright then. But you keep alluding to ‘Allieds’, who are they?”

Faber blinked hard. “That’s just slang me and my crewmen use to refer to the Alliance between countries like Russia, America, Britain, etc who’re fighting against Germany. And I’d bring out their commander, but he only speaks English and German from my knowledge about him, so I don’t think he’d be very reliable.” For a moment, the 4 girls swore they heard someone grumble from the bushes. Then a brown-haired man with a beard walked out from the foliage.

Looking directly at Faber, he said to him in English, “[Faber, I actually can speak a bit of Japanese, because after the war ends in Europe I’m planning to go to the Pacific. So don’t worry about that, okay?]” the man added that part somewhat threateningly.

Faber pushed him away with sudden force, telling the girls, “Don’t worry about us just yet, we just need to formulate a plan and go back home. Speaking of home, you should go home as well. [Auf Wiedersehen]” With that, Faber and the American disappeared into the underbrush and trees.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this was my first real long chapter, I hope it's good!


	5. The Tinkerer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faber's lead technician comes into play

Later at night, Miho’s mind raced as she slipped into her pajamas, before sitting down on her bed and turned on her TV to the news.

“Experts are baffled at what caused the incident today. Many claim to have seen something that resembled a lightning strike, despite the fact that the weather has been clear all day, so what truly happened today is still a mystery-”

Miho’s concentration was broken by the ringing of her cellphone. “Y-Yes?” she answered.

“Nishizumi! Did anything happen to you or anyone else? I’m calling to check in on everyone because I don’t want to lose members of the Sensha-do team to some crazy ‘thing’!” Momo Kawashima nearly shouted on the other end.

Miho initially looked shocked at Momo’s shouting, but quickly answered back, “Yes, I’m fine. Everyone else in the Anglerfish Team is okay too, we were all together when it happened. Not sure about Mako though...Oh well, she was probably just sleeping like always.”

“I see.” Momo was sitting in the Student Council room, overlooking an important document. “Hopefully it doesn’t turn anyone off of the upcoming Sensha-do anniversary. You remember I told you about it, correct?” Miho told her yes. “Good. Hopefully whatever it was that happened today doesn’t cause anything weird to fly around. Remember, us and the other school’s will be gathering in one part of the ocean to celebrate it all, and as things are, students from other schools will be going about the other School Carriers.” Momo looked at the clock. “It’s starting to get late, so I’ll hang-up. Stay safe.”

A beep indicated Momo hanging up, and Miho, now exhausted from everything, turned off the TV, and laid back on her bed, holding one of her Boko bears.  _ Should I have told Momo and the Student Council about Faber? They are related to the incident of the lightning strike after all...but their presence could break up the upcoming Sensha-do festival, and it’s one of the most important events in all of Sensha-do...Perhaps I’ll tell them gently… _

Miho, with all the thoughts speeding through her head, felt restless, yet she fell asleep in no time.

For Faber and Willy, the night was just starting. Willy crouched over, inspecting the engine of his UHLS Model 1. “Looks like we need to replace some parts. I think the engine got fried when we went through time, then when we turned them on to hide them. Do you have parts, Faber?”

Faber turned to one of his vice-commanders and lead engineer, Otto von Bastler. “Do we have parts, Otto?”

Otto shook his head accompanied by a resounding, “Nein.” Otto hopped onto the UHLS and looked as well. “This engine is custom made, and we just used all our spare parts ourselves making sure the Ratte is fully functioning.”

“Argh. Why do you Jerrys have to run out of parts now?” said Owen with obvious disdain. All this did elicit a growl of contempt from Otto and a few other German crewmen, although Faber raised his hand in case they got angrier from Owen’s remarks.

Otto pushed up his wire-framed spectacles. “Well...earlier when I went out to see where we were, I heard the sounds of tank engines from that school over there. I don’t know why tanks would be there though.” Otto pointed over into the distance. Just over the hill and across some trails and roads was the Ooarai Girls Academy.

“Tanks?” said Willy.

“Ja. Perhaps it’s a military school? Or maybe some sort of recreational sport, don’t ask me. Either way, that must mean they have parts there, so perhaps we should nab some?”

Faber shook his head. “I have a feeling that the Nishizumi girl trusts us, and I wouldn’t want to do anything to give her an excuse to bring Polizei.”

“Says the guy who’s responsible for destroying several tank divisions.” Faber simply argh’d at the remark.

“Alright fine, but don’t take anything too much. And whatever you do,  do not be caught. So who’s going?” All of a sudden, everyone stepped away from Otto.

“W-what?” said a dumbfounded Otto.

“Damn you Allied feinds.” Otto mumbled. After being singled out by literally everyone, even his comrades, Otto, wearing a cloth coif around his face colored black, had walked a few miles towards the school of Ooarai, eventually coming to where he believed they held their tanks. He recognized metal garage doors and red brick.  _ Well at least no one’s around. It’s midnight after all. _ There really wasn’t anything to stop people from just waltzing into the compound, just a low brick wall that opened up at some point for tanks and movement, so with that, Otto hopped over the wall, landing quietly on the course dirt and sand ground. Otto spotted a door in the side of what seemed to be a hanger, so crouching low to the ground he crept over to it, and opening it a crack, breathed a deep sigh. In relief, as no one was around nor inside the hanger.

Otto stepped into the massive hanger and breathed, “Wow…” at all the tanks within. A few of them he recognized, namely: “They have a Sturmgeschütz III, a Panzerkampfwagen IV...A Hetzer, I think that’s a B1 Bis, if Hans’ description is right...and…” Otto winced slightly at the last one he recognized. “A Porsche Tiger too...Jesus.” Otto remembered when he was called in to inspect one at testing trials. It had an impressive amount of armor, and an even more impressive 88mm gun, and as he remembered seeing it, Otto would’ve called it a glorious tank if it hadn’t sunk into the mud. Then caught fire. Otto still remembered how Albert Speer, who was right next to him, remarked how it most definitely wouldn’t work up to Hitler’s expectations, the latter of whom was also there. Getting back on point Otto stepped past all the vehicles and began towards several tables, which had blueprints of the various tanks and several tools strewn about. Otto began to look about for parts of engines, but he didn’t find any. That is until he noticed a number of open crates sitting in the corner of the room. Inside, just as he had hopped Otto found a number of spare parts for engines and whatnot. Stuffing them into his shockingly deep pockets and jacket, Otto began to walk off when…

“Hey! Who’re you?” Otto resisted the urge to turn around and see who had walked in on his theft. Fortunately for him, Otto was obscured by shadows, as he had thought it wise to go out another door across the hanger instead of the one he had come in by, and as he passed the tanks, their shadows went over him. Otto slowly stood upwards, with a thin beam of light shining through the open door.

“Is it you, Nakajima? It’s a bit late to be tinkering isn’t it?” asked the unknown girl. Otto’s mind raced on ways to get out of the situation.

_ Run? No, then she’ll know I’m a thief. Probably call the polizei too. Stay still? She’s already seen me though. _ Unbeknownst to its owner, Otto’s hand was slowly slipping into one of his jacket pockets. Otto decided enough was enough and began to turn around, when shockingly on impulse, this happened:

“Oi, Nakajima did you hear-”  **Clunk**

Before the unknown girl could ask anymore, a large, steel piston head contacted her forehead with a loud clunk and slight crack. The girl went silent, and next Otto heard a body fall to the concrete ground. Twisting around Otto saw a tanned girl in an orange mechanic’s jumpsuit, the suit’s upper half tied around her waist. Realization dawned onto Otto, and before he could control himself his breathing became erratic and Otto felt his arms beginning to twitch and spasm. He had impulsively thrown a large, heavy steel piston head from his pocket right into the girls head, and now she lay on the ground, Otto not knowing if he had merely knocked her out or if she was in a worse condition.

1 minute went by. Then two. Then 5. At this point, Otto had controlled himself, and stopped his panic attack. Standing up silently he went over to the girl on the ground, and feeling her neck, gasped in relief. She was only unconscious. He noticed a card sticking out of one of her pockets, that had a name. Hoshino, loader for “Leopon Team” and a mechanic for the rest of the Ooarai Sensha-do team. Otto looked around. No one else was around, fortunately, she came alone into the garage/hanger.

“What to do, what to do…” Otto instinctively muttered to himself. Without another moment to spare, he picked her up, and seeing the Leopon design on the Tiger(P), gently set her down inside the crew compartment. “Good. That way she’ll wake up there, and nothing will look wrong to her comrades. I hope.”

Without another thought, Otto left the hanger, jumping the brick wall and off down the trails, his pockets filled with vital parts, back into the deep forest.


	6. Celebration of a long time tradition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start to pick up for Miho and her friends. And for Faber Eisenherz as well.

The next morning:

“Has anyone seen Hoshino?” asked the leader and radio operator of the Leopon Team, Satoko Nakajima. When no one said yes, in fact they shook their heads, Satoko began to get worried. “I haven’t seen her all day...Do you guys know where she went?” she then asked the rest of the Leopon Team. One of them, Suzuki, an even more tan girl, nodded.

“I think she might’ve come into here to do repairs or something, but that’s just a guess…” all the girls in the Sensha-do team began to think and ponder, until their thinking was abruptly interrupted by the sound of a girl yelling before Hoshino stuck her head out of the Tiger(P), jumped out, and fell on the ground, light headed.

“Hoshino! Are you ok!?” inquired Satoko. Everyone else began to crowd around.

Sensha-do member and driver for Anglerfish Team Mako Reizei, with a tired look on her face-as was normal of her-suddenly pointed. “You’re bleeding.”

“I am?” Hoshino put a hand to her head, and went wide-eyed when she saw her fingers had blood on them. In fact, there was a trail of blood going down her head.

Miho looked one of the most concerned. “What happened, Hoshino?”

Hoshino rubbed her head before Suzuki stopped her. “I think I came into the hanger last night to check on the tanks...ugh, my head...I...think I saw someone in here, so I asked who they were, but then they suddenly swung around and I blacked out. Maybe they threw something at me…”

Momo rubbed her chin. “We’ll figure that out later. Hoshino, go up to the nurse and get treated, everyone else, listen up!” Everyone perked up. “In about one week, the school carrier will be joining up with all the other ones from around the nation to celebrate the Anniversary of Sensha-do!” There was a gasp and some clapped eagerly. “We’ll be having students from other schools like St. Gloriana’s or Kuromorimine coming in and out from our ship. We’ll be free to go about as well, but remember, best behavior! Public Morals Committee, I trust you’ll make sure that everyone at the school is behaving!”

Leader of the Hippo Team, Riko Matsumoto, otherwise known by her teammates as Erwin, raised her hand. “If this is so important then why not tell the whole school? Why just us?”

“We’re planning on telling the rest of the school, Erwin.” said the Student Council President, Anzu Kadotani.

Momo nodded. “The reason we’re telling you all first is because the Anniversary event lasts quite some time, almost an entire month or more, and during that time, Sensha-do teams from other schools will be free to ask other teams to have matches with them, and since we’ve won both the Nationals and against the University team, I expect we’ll have teams lining up to challenge us! Show them our strength!” Everyone cheered, although Miho looked somewhat nervous, along with the 4 other members of the Anglerfish Team. They had told Mako about the soldiers in the woods, although her worry was non-existent. The only worry she had was getting more sleep, really.

Later, after the meeting had ended and everyone had begun clambering into their tanks to train for the upcoming festival, Miho pulled the rest of her team to the side, just out of view from everyone else. “So...the festival itself is good, but the thing is, those men in the woods could be found by people wandering around. What do you all say? I’m considering telling the Student Council.”

Saori rubbed her chin. “Well, considering how far-fetched the whole thing sounds, they’ll just think we went crazy or it’s a prank. And if it gets out…” Saori chivered. “Then I won’t get a boyfriend if all the boys think I’m crazy.”

Hana giggled. “Boy crazy as always, hm?”

“Hana!” gasped Saori.

Yukari scratched her scalp. “Well, Nishizumi-dono...You should make that decision. You’re our captain afterall!”

“Oh!” Miho turned her attention back to the tanks. Most of them had driven off to go fire on the range and practice other skills. “We should get going, before anyone realizes we stayed behind. We can talk about Eisenherz later!”

Without another word, Miho and her team clambered into their Panzer IV, started the engine, and drove off to join their comrades. Or at least most of them.

“Sounds interesting, Yuzu?” Anzu Kadotani exclaimed to her fellow council member and friend. Her and the student council had stayed behind in their Hetzer 38(t), along with another tank.

Momo seemed somewhat out of breath. “If I remember right, some people said they thought they saw the lightning strike from the woods, and...Oh geez do we have some sort of teleportation incident on our hands!?”

Yuzu Koyama said nothing. Anzu turned around, sweet potato chip in hand, to the awaiting 4 members of the Hippo Team. “I guess my hunch was right. Something is up, and something big by the looks of it. Erwin!”

The blonde-haired cosplaying history buff clacked together her German jackboots and stood tall. “What’ll you need, President?”

Anzu ate the sweet potato in one go. “Go find these ‘men in the woods’. I’m intrigued by who they are.”

Momo readjusted her monocle and remarked, “It’ll be a miracle if something of this scale doesn’t leak to the other schools.” Momo was sweating a bit. “I mean, it all sounds so crazy but at the same time...it might make sense, but then there could be a scandal or something…” Momo started to ramble a bit, before council-member and friend, Yuzu Koyama, put a hand on her shoulder.

“Momo-chan, calm down. We just need to make sure no one finds out.”

“Don’t call me that!”


	7. The Desert Fox and the Rat of Steel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin and Hippo Team are sent to do some investigating in the woods.

“So, ‘Kommandant’-”

“Willy...Please don’t call me that.”

“-we’ve repaired most if not all of our tanks, we should be ready to get back home,  _ right? _ ” gritted Willy Nathans.

“Ugh…” Faber rubbed his face with a gloved hand. “This is why I don’t like you Americans. So annoying…” he grumbled to himself.

“Right back atcha, I don’t like how pessimistic you treat me and the rest of my men, you jerries. Anyways, what else is on our agenda?” Willy asked.

Faber looked over to where he and his men had concealed their main tank. “Well we’ve repaired the Landkreuzer for the most part, just need to fix the last of the engines and reading equipment but well…”

“Yeah? What is it? Gotta fix your fancy machine?” piped up Owen, who had been laying down on his back, fiddling with his rifle.

“Exactly. The Wundermotor completely fried itself. Luckily, we don’t have to replace anything, but whatever it is that the Wundermotor runs on is completely gone now, and I can only hope that it recharges itself at some point. So until then we’re stuck in this world.”

“Oh for Christ’s sake.” Willy jumped up, stretching high into the air, right before collapsing back down onto the log that he had been sitting on, right across from Faber who was sitting atop a Tiger 1, on the turret. Willy suddenly sprung back up, a look of utmost confusion on his face. “Wait, what do you mean by, ‘whatever it is that the Wundermotor runs on’?”

From within the Tiger popped out Otto, from a hatch that had been customly fit onto the tank. “That’s the thing. We were given the Wundermotor, but after a few weeks we realized something was wrong because we never put fuel into it. Yet it continued running, and when I examined it, I couldn’t see any sort of place to put in fuel. No gasoline, no electricity.”

Owen sat up rigid. “So you’re saying…”

“Ja. Somehow the Wundermotor creates its own energy, and based on what we’ve used it for, enhances the power of other machines. It’s paradoxical in that the Wundermotor itself is an engine, so it’s some sort of engine-generator hybrid. I tried asking what it runs on, but I never got an answer back.”

“Oh bloody hell...So we can only wait!?” The only response Owen got back was a nod of unfortunate acceptance, acceptance that it was all they could do, to wait, from the Germans.

“That must be them.” whispered the Gunner of the Hippo Team, Saemonza. The rest of her team were all crouched down or lying behind bushes, spying on the foreigners, who were foreigners in more ways than just ethnicity. Saemonza turned to her right and asked her captain, “Who do you think the guy named Eisenherz is?”

Erwin gazed over the men. Others were beginning to trail into the clearing, some of them clad in German uniforms while the rest wore uniforms of the Red Army, all with brown or black Ushankas. They all stood around, except for one tall one, who sat down near the bushes, right where the Hippo team was hiding. Luckily, he seemed to be somewhat deaf as he didn’t hear Erwin whisper to Saemonza, “The Eisenherz guy, huh...I think he’s the guy in the officer’s uniform. I mean it makes sense, the name means ‘Iron Heart’”

“I didn’t know you knew German, Erwin.” Oryou, driver of Hippo Team said in surprise.

“Eh, I just picked it up reading about Rommel and the War, y’know?” replied Erwin with an almost cocky smile. A cocky smile that was immediately replaced by despair when a hand suddenly dove through the bushes and dragged her out into the clearing. Her face frozen in fear and shock, all Erwin could do was say nothing whilst several Russians, Germans, and Owen, Willy, and Faber stared at her, before the one who dragged her out said in English with a heavy Russian accent said, 

“[What’ll we do with the spy, komandir?]”

“I thought he was deaf…” Erwin mumbled to herself as she and her team sat on the ground. Erwin was left unbound, but the rest of her team was wrapped in a steel cabled bola.

Remembering what had happened after Erwin was found out, Saemonza mumbled something to herself, something along the lines of, “How shameful…” When Erwin was found out, the others quickly sprung out of their hiding spots, before realizing that trying to reason with the men was out of the window. So they tried running to get help from their comrades, when Otto suddenly pulled out a device from behind and fired it off, entangling the rest of the Hippo team in the bola that they were now stuck in.

Meanwhile, all the men, Germans, Russians, the American Willy, British Owen, and German High Commander Faber all bickered about the spies.

One of the Germans, Hans-Faber’s second-in-command-suddenly piped up with an idea. “[Maybe we can make them forget using amnestics!]”

“[Hans I would’ve done that already if I had them. And I think I’ve told you, I don’t take so kindly to messing with children!]”

“[What if we just kept them around so they won’t rat us out?]” said the Russian.

“[Nyet]” one of his comrades said. “[Their comrades would surely notice them missing, da?]”

As the soldiers continued to argue, Saemonza felt a nudge from Oryou, who was right next to her. “Psst.” Saemonza nodded. “I have a Tanto in a pocket on my coat. Erwin do you hear me? Caesar?” The two nodded in turn.

“So you’re saying we cut the line and run? Good.” Erwin grinned a nervous smile.  _ Oh boy, we have to cut a steel cable without being noticed and run without being caught by several fully grown soldiers. Better than nothing. _

“AARGH!” the debate suddenly died down. “[None of you are being helpful! Just get back to the tanks, I’ll deal with them all]!” shouted Faber with a stern tone that simply oozed authority. With that, all the tanks dispersed, leaving Faber alone with The Hippo Team.

Turning to them, he pointed a gloved finger. “So…” the girls all flinched.  _ He speaks Japanese! _ Was the collective thought of panic. Off the bridge went their plan of feigning ignorance, excuse being a language barrier. “Why are you spying on us? Were you sent here by your school?”

Erwin saw no reason to lie. And besides, based on the psychological profile she had created of him, he’d most likely be the kind to see right through. “Yes, sir…” Erwin tipped her head in feigned shame, causing her hat to fall off. Immediately she tried to grab it, and with some difficulty somehow put it back on her head.

Faber’s face turned into one of confusion. “Are you pretending to be Rommel or something? It’s very legitimate.” Before Erwin could answer proudly, Faber continued. “It doesn’t really matter anyways. [Great, what do I do with 4 schoolgirls who’re spying on me and my men?]”

Erwin suddenly got an idea at the mention of Rommel. “Why yes, I am imitating Rommel! In fact I know his every exploit!” she boasted loudly and proudly. Her teammates collectively realized her strategy. Distract the Heerfuher by talking about Erwin Rommel. “What about you? Surely someone like you would know of him!”

The High Commander blinked. “Of course I know who Rommel is. If you want to know, I served alongside him in the Wehrmacht as a lieutenant before he went to Afrika and I was pulled to go fight Russians.” Erwin(the schoolgirl)was stunned. Then Faber added, “He was also my closest friend in the Heer. I find it very saddening that he chose to commit suicide instead of keep living.” Now Erwin was just speechless.

“Now!” The cable suddenly came undone and remembering the plan, Erwin and the rest of her team jumped to their feet and began to turn and run out of the forest.

“Hey! Halt!” Faber shouted after them. He lunged forward with a sudden burst of speed, to which Saemonza, wielding the Tanto, swung down at Faber’s outstretched hand in a panic. It swung down cleanly and into Faber’s glove-then it stopped.

_ Wait, did I just hear a clang? _ Saemonza thought to herself before Faber growled and before she knew it, Saemonza was flung backwards by a sudden knee to the chest. Saemonza felt all the air in her body be expelled, and her stomach ached hard in pain, but Caesar picked her up and they all continued running.

“Should we chase them? Sir.” asked Hans. He and several others rushed into the small clearing where the Hippo Team had been.

Owen pulled back the bolt on his rifle. “If you really want me to, I could try shooting at them.” His gun was immediately pushed down by Willy.

Faber shook his head. “It should be fine.” he muttered, as he looked at his glove, which now had a small nick in it.

“A-are you guys ok!?” the question flew from Yuzu Koyama’s mouth when the Hippo Team had burst into their office. It was late at night, and to the worry of the 3 person Student Council, the team hadn’t returned by the time they indicated. It was when the 3 considered going to look for them when they burst into the office, panting, sweaty, and in Saemonza’s case, coughing like her lungs had been destroyed.

“I’ll-*hack*live.” Saemonza was guided to the couch where she sat down, still coughing. “It’s like a tank just shot me in the chest.” then she coughed even more, prompting Yuzu to tell her to stop talking for now.

“What happened to you three?” Momo immediately inquired.

Erwin leaned against one of the couches, panting slightly. “Well, we spied on them like you all asked, and well I’ll tell you what we overheard them talking about later, but right now...So this Russian guy found me, everyone else tried to run, but they got hit by some sort of bola gun. They bickered about what to do with us but that Eisenherz guy told them off and they left. Luckily, Oryou had a Tanto,” the Student Council’s eyes creased in concern. “So we managed to get away, but Saemonza swung that Eisenherz, and the weird thing is, Saemonza, what did you say happened?”

Saemonza, now in control of her breathing, tried to stand, but immediately sat back down due to the pain in her chest. “The blade stopped. It didn’t cut into anything, and I swear I heard a clang like it had hit metal. Then the officer kicked me and I suddenly went flying back.” Saemonza started to cough again.

Anzu turned to the team. She had forgoed her sweet potatoes. “What were they talking about, Erwin?”

“Sorry, I gotta sit down. We didn’t stop running until we got here…”

Anzu turned to Caesar, who seemed much less winded. Caesar put a hand to her chin. “Well they were talking about something called the ‘Wundermotor’, and they mentioned something about it being out of energy or fuel. I’m guessing it’s some sort of engine of theirs. They said all they could do was wait and see. Besides that, we saw them working on a Tiger 1, but I get the feeling there’s not all of them.”

Anzu got to thinking in turn. “So we have some visitors from another time or world, and it looks like they’ll be staying for a while...They have tanks, but there could be more. It’s not just Germans, there’s also Allied soldiers. But where are they hiding specifically? They could be anywhere in the forest…” Anzu turned to Hippo Team. “All of you, go home. We’ll take it from here.”

When the Hippo Team had left the office, the rest of the council turned to their president. “What’s first, president?” inquired Momo. After all, Anzu was known for scheming.

Anzu took out a sweet potato. “First things first next morning. We confront the Anglerfish Team.” And with one big bite she ate the whole chip.


	8. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miho and Anglerfish Team have a lot of explaining to do

It seemed like an ordinary day for Miho that morning. The Anniversary of Sensha-do was in a week's time, sure, but other than that, everything was normal. That was until she got to the Tank hanger. Anzu had asked her to meet in the hanger, saying that they were going to discuss a potential strategy for fighting the Sensha-do teams of the other schools. Of course Miho agreed to it, and it wasn’t very surprising when the rest of the Anglerfish Team was there as well. However when the crew of 5 walked into the hangar through one of it’s doors, red flags began to pop up. First, all the tanks were gone, except those belonging to the Turtle, Hippo, and Leopon Teams, and Anglerfish as they just got there. Secondly, the door suddenly locked behind them as soon as it closed. And lastly, standing in the middle of the chamber were the teams that the remaining tanks belonged to, all of whom wore various expressions. Hippo Team was that of sterness. The Leopon Team was confused. But the Turtle Team had looks of concentration and sternness on their faces. Even Yuzu looked stern.

“W-what’s going on, everyone?” Miho timidly asked. The rest of her team looked somewhat worried. However their faces were more those of determination.

Anzu spoke up first. “Miho Nishizumi...You know about the mysterious incident that happened last week, don’t you?”

Miho immediately thought of the first strategy. “I don’t know much more about it than you do, Anzu-san.”

Saemonza suddenly spoke. “We know you're hiding those soldiers in the woods. After all…” Saemonza suddenly lifted up the shirt of her uniform, exposing her stomach, which was heavily wrapped in bandages. “If they weren’t around, I wouldn’t have this around my waist, would I?”

Momo spoke next. “Miho, this is serious. Everyone will mostly likely be talking about the incident, and should those soldiers be exposed to a public light, things could be severely blown up. And if this Wundermotor of theirs becomes known as well, the Government could tear up the school.”

“We had to keep them secret for a reason!” piped up Yukari. The other members of the Anglerfish Team agreed-except for Mako and Miho. The former being too sleepy to care, and the latter deep in thought.

“Anzu-san.”

“Yes?”

“Why’re we having this confrontation anyways? Our goals are the same on this.”

Anzu suddenly ate a dried sweet potato. “Because, you should’ve told us about it…But’cha didn’t, so we did our own investigating.” The other council members nodded. “I mean, all we gotta do is make sure the other schools and the public don’t find out, so it should be fine to tell the rest of us, right? From what I hear those soldiers will need our help if they want to get back home.”

Miho and the rest of the team sighed deeply in relief. “Thank goodness. I thought you would be angry.” Miho breathed.

“I’m not. Saemonza and Leopon team are though.” Anzu suddenly added on.

“Eh?”

Leopon team immediately began to voice about what had happened with Hoshino being knocked out and how a large amount of spare parts had been being stolen throughout the course of last week, along with a few of their tools. Saemonza went over to the Anglerfish Team, and said to them quietly, “President told us(Hippo Team)to investigate the soldiers when we overheard you talking about them. The German guy named Eisenherz kicked me.”

“H-he did!?” gasped Saori.

Joined by the rest of her team Oryou pointed out, “In all fairness you did swing a sword down into his hand.”

Saemonza flushed in anger. “Still it felt like I was shot by a tank! And it still hurts!”

Miho giggled to herself nervously. “Eheheh, I guess Eisenherz will have to apologize later. Also why did you have a sword?”

Erwin pointed her thumb at Oryou. “Oryou had one. I’m not questioning it though, those guys were honestly pretty scary. And that Eisenherz guy…”

“Are you still in shock that he knew Rommel so well?” Caesar teased.

“So what!? I admire Rommel!” Caesar laughed at Erwin’s outburst, and so did the rest of the Hippo Team, along with the Anglerfish Team. The Student Council simply hung back. “Ah I get you Erwin.” said Yukari. “Apparently he has the Grand Cross medal, so I imagine he must be a pretty high ranking general back in his time.”

“Hey what about me!?” outburst Hoshino. “Now that we know everything, I’m pretty sure it was one of those soldiers who knocked me out.”

“We’ve never seen them though, so who knows?” Driver of Leopon, Tsuchiya pointed out.

“Either way, let’s go meet them now!” Anzu suddenly shouted, to the shock of all.

“Are you sure, President? They might get the wrong idea or something!”

“Momo-chan is right, but still...getting this out of the way would be good.”

Anzu just ate another chip. “Let’s go!”


	9. Talking things out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What the title says.

“[In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie!]” sang Willy as sat upon his UHLS tank. Around him his crewmen-all of whom were not American-simply sat listening to the Americans singing their song. Willy and the other Americans continued to loudly sing.

“[They sure are bored, huh?]” remarked Owen before sipping tea from a metal cup.

The Russian of Willy’s crew itched his ear beneath the ear flap of his black Ushanka. “[It’s impressive Kommandir Willy and his brothers can be so jolly.]”

Willy continued to sing the Southern song, “Dixie” before he was interrupted by a loud rustling from the nearby foliage. “Who is it?” From the bushes walked in the Anglerfish Team, and definitely not to the amusement of those gathered, the Hippo, Leopon, and Turtle Teams as well. Willy hopped off the tank and towards the group of highschoolers. “Who’re they, Nishizumi?”

Miho began to sweat a little. “I told you they wouldn’t like this.” Miho whispered to the rest of her friends, but Anzu walked confidently forwards to greet the American.

“I’m Anzu Kadotani, Student Council President of Ooarai Girls Academy. We heard Miho and her team talking about you guys,” One of the Americans that was singing Dixie with Willy scowled. “So I thought we’d introduce ourselves.” Anzu held out her hand to shake.

Willy looked upland and squinted at the highschool in the distance. “President huh? Well, nice to meet you then.” Surprisingly, Willy shook Anzu’s hand with a firm and callused hand.

The black-capped Russian pointed a finger. “Aren’t you those spies from two days ago? Did the German let you get away?”

“Pretty sure he did, Niklav.” Willy told the Russian, eliciting a grunt and nod. “Anyways, what’re y’all here to do? Rat us out or somethin’?”

Anzu nonchalantly ate a dried sweet potato. “Nothing of that sort. I, we, want to get some things cleared up between us at Ooarai and you strangers. So where’s the Eisenherz guy?”

Owen drained the last of his tea. “He’s over there, but he always says he’s busy with something.” Owen said as he put his thumb over his shoulder to his left. So Anzu and the student council left, leaving Leopon, Hippo, and Anglerfish Teams alone with the Allied Soldiers.

“...”

“...”

“...”

Silence was traded all around. Now what were they to talk about? Fortunately it was Saori who broke the ice. “What were you singing earlier?”

The other Americans suddenly looked much more gleeful than before, when their soldier instincts kicked in. Willy answered, “We were singing the Southern Folk Song Dixie. Me and my brothers and cousins.”

Miho’s eyebrows went up. “They’re all your siblings?”

“And cousins. Wanna listen?” A general murmur of agreement went around the Schoolgirls. Reaching down, Willy picked up a fiddle, whilst his brothers and cousins had their own instruments. To answer the bewilderment at the instruments on the faces of the Ooarai girls, Willy proudly explained, “While we were on the boat to Europe, we had brought instruments from home with us, so we would sing songs to boost morale. Heh, sometimes I wonder to myself how our instruments haven’t been shot up yet. Anyways…” Willy and his brothers began to play, and after some instrumental, began to sing as well. “[Well I wish we were in the land of cotton, the old times there are not forgotten, look away! Look away! Look away to Dixie lands! In Dixie lands where I was born, early on one frosty morning look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie land. Oh I wish were in Dixie Land, hooray, hooray. In Dixies lands I’ll take my stand, to live and die in Dixie. Hooray, away, oh way down South in Dixie! Hooray, away, oh way down South in Dixie!]” they sang. Of course, there’s much more to the song than that, which the Americans all sang joyfully. The others, British, Russian, and a few Germans simply sat around, sipping on tea while Willy and his brothers, both by blood and arms, all sang merrily. The Ooarai girls sat in the grass, listening to the men sing.

“They’ve got a lot of energy for soldiers huh?” Suzuki commented.

“Sure do!” agreed Hoshino.  _ I still wish I knew who knocked me out though. _

In no time at all, with all the singing from the Americans, the Student Council returned with Faber Eisenherz, Hans, and Otto in tow. Hans took a look around the gaggle of the Americans, who had stopped singing(although they were still playing a quiet instrumental)and the Leopon, Hippo, and Anglerfish Teams sitting in the grass. Hans remarked, “Well it seems you're all having fun.” There was an unanimous shout of agreement from them all. “Still, what if someone overhears you!” he scolded.

Although this elicited Faber to slap Hans on the back before saying, “We can’t scold them for that. We’ve been singing  _ Erika  _ and the  _ Panzerlied _ for a while now, but no one’s overheard us...I think.” There was a sudden rustling of foliage from a direction, but when Owen flipped over from where he sat on the engine deck of the UHLS, there was no one there. “It was probably a bunch of bunnies or something, Owen.” Faber reassured.

It was not rabbits however. As the 3 girls slipped away into the forest and out of it into the sunlight, one of them remarked, “Damn, I didn’t think Ooarai was keeping such a secret!”

“Me too! I wonder what kind of tanks they have…”

The last one, the tallest, spotted their escape vehicle in the distance. “Let’s talk about that later. For now, we gotta get back to Saunders!”

After some negotiation, the interdimensional soldiers and the Ooarai Student Council had come to an agreement. First, the rest of the Ooarai Sensha-do team would have to be informed about the soldiers, to avoid any further confusion and so rumors would not spread. Faber, Willy, Owen, and Niklav agreed. Next, in exchange for the fact that Otto had been stealing many, many spare parts from Ooarai, the Leopon Team demanded that the soldiers help Ooarai repair their tanks. As this was relatively menial, all parties agreed. Yukari tried to sneak in that the soldiers had to show the Ooarai Sensha-do team their tanks, but it was left out as completely different tanks driving into Ooarai would definitely cause some problems. Although Willy said with a laugh that they might show them their tanks, causing Yukari to cheer loudly. Lastly, the Leopon team agreed to help the Germans analyze and potentially fix the Wundermotor, although it would have to be kept at Ooarai due to the fact that it would be suspicious if the Leopon Team kept walking into the forest. Faber and Otto initially objected, but they agreed after the aforementioned point was made. All that had to be done now was that the visiting students from the other schools in the Anniversary of Sensha-do wouldn’t find the soldiers. Unfortunately that was easier said than done.


	10. The Ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The GuP girls meet Hans and find out he's quite a ghost.

“Alright, here’s the Wundermotor.” Otto, with Faber’s aid, placed down the aforementioned machine on the grass in the woods. Upon seeing the faces of the Leopon Team, Otto added on, “We also call it [Der Kessel] because it looks like a boiler. It does doesn’t it?”

Satoko nodded. “Huh, your right. It does look like a boiler when you look at it enough.” The Wundermotor was a tall, cylindrical machine, with a piece of cylindrical glass in the center that according to the Germans, would emit a purple glow, but all that came was a dull grey. It had various pipes sticking from it that created an odd pattern at the top and bottom, and in the center surrounding the whole machine was a circle of circular and square piston heads pointed downwards into the machine at an angle. Oddly, there were no bolts or signs of welding or anything on the central body. It was all just one large smooth cylinder, the only sign of bolting or welding were where the pipes went in and out of the Wundermotor. “So...is this thing dangerous?” Satoko and the rest of the Leopon team stepped back slightly when the Wundermotor’s glass glowed grey.

Faber turned to Otto, and realizing he would have to explain everything for Faber, Otto sighed. “It should be safe as long as you don’t shoot it. Besides, it’s lost energy, so it can’t possibly do anything right now.” he said reassuringly. “Anyways, let’s get the [Der Kessel] loaded up, we did agree to move it to your tank hanger. Do you have a truck or anything? [Der Kessel] is quite heavy.” When Otto was only given silence, he signed again. “[Faber, can you call Hans to tow the Wundermotor? It seems they haven’t brought any sort of vehicles to transport the Wundermotor.]”

Turning to Hans, who had begun to walk away in boredom, Faber said in a clear and loud voice, “[Hans, Achtung!]”

Instantly, Hans turned around and clicked his boots together. “[Ja, Kommandant?]”

“[Get your Panzer II and help these girls tow the Wundermotor back to their base. They’ll guide you, and as long as you keep your head inside, no one should think anything out of the ordinary.]”

“[Jawohl.]” Hans walked off into the forest, disappearing into the underbrush. Several minutes later, the low rumble of a gasoline engine appeared and a dark steel blue Panzer II came into view, towing behind it a wagon large enough to carry the Wundermotor, along with a tarp to cover it. The Panzer II’s hatch opened and popped out his head, Hans said an abrupt, “Let’s go.”

About a half-hour later of putting the Wundermotor into the wagon, covering it with the tarp, and then checking that no one was watching, the Panzer II with the rest of the Ooarai girls was travelling down the roads to the Ooarai hanger. Yukari excitedly examined the Panzer II, spouting off it’s aspects, such as it’s speed, armor, and other things. “The gun’s different though.” Yukari said with curiosity.

One of the Panzer II’s hatches flipped open and Hans’ voice flowed out, informing Yukari about the gun. “Otto modified the guns to be more powerful. The 4 barrels are good.”

“Is it more cramped inside the Panzer or anything?” said Yukari.

“[Nein.] Otto did a number of modifications on this Panzer without sacrificing ergonomics.” Hans went silent before asking for the 3rd time, “Are we getting closer?”

“Yeah, we're just about there to our Hanger.” Anzu informed Hans. Just as she said that, Hans turned into the large, empty lot where the Ooarai Sensha-do Team would drive their tanks, which was right in front of the large Tank Hanger. Hans stopped the engine and hopped out of his tank from the hatch, and as the Ooarai girls went about opening the garage, Hans unhooked the wagon and began to trail it towards the hanger before he stopped.

“What’s wrong Hans?” Miho looked around, concerned.

“I hear someone coming!” he abruptly stated before he suddenly leapt back into the Panzer, and at that exact moment he closed the hatch a girl with short brown hair worn in ponytails wearing under rimmed glasses turned the corner.

“Oh, hey you guys are here! I’m Taiga Ou of the Broadcasting Club, can I interview you guys about the upcoming Sensha-do Festival?” the girl said eagerly.

“S-sure!” Miho rubbed her head slightly.  _ Thank goodness, Hans jumped into his Panzer before she appeared. _

“Hooray! Alright so…” and soon Taiga flew into an excited state, spitting out questions quite quickly.

All the while, Hans left one of the Panzer’s hatches open listening to the reporter.  _ What’s Sensha-do? _ He thought to himself. He made a note to tell the others and ask the girls.

Taiga, after writing down one of the answers Miho and the Student Council gave her, pointed to the Panzer II with her pen. “What’s up with the tank? Are you gonna add it to your line up?”

Momo feigned rubbing her chin in thought. “Oh, that, right...Uhhh…” Taiga leaned forward, making Momo even more nervous. “We um, we’re considering it! Yeah, that, besides, right now it’s just borrowed.”

“I see. What’s in that wagon?” Taiga pointed to the wagon next, with the Wundermotor still covered by the tarp.

Suzuki piped up, “It’s spare parts! We just had to tow them a bit.”

“I see. Last question! What will you say to all the other schools who will challenge you during the festival?”

Miho gave her answer a good thought. “We’ll be waiting.” Doing a bit of a cheesy jump, she added on, “Panzer vor!”

“Thank you guys! I’ll see you later!” Taiga ran off, answers in hand. As soon as she was out of earshot, everyone breathed in relief, with Hans jumping back out of the Panzer II.

“Phew, we dodged that tank shell. Alright, now help me get the Wundermotor inside.” With that, they managed to bring the wagon into the hanger and unload the Wundermotor placing it in the corner, covered by the tarp. That way no one would think it was something odd. Checking the sun, Hans told them all, “I should get back to the forest. I’ll see you next time.” As he began to climb into his Panzer, Yukari had two questions of her own. “What?”

“I’ve got two questions: 1, are you from the Ghost Division? I saw the patch on your arm.”

“[Ja], I am.”

With even more excitement, Yukari stated her final question: “Is the tank that you and the other soldiers currently crew a P.1000 Ratte?”

“Well I’m afraid I’m not one to tell secrets. [Tschüss.]” Without another word, Hans started the engine and at surprising speed, drove off down the path.

“The 7th Panzer Division...I didn’t spot that before, Guderian.” Erwin said in wonder. “You’ve got keen eyes.”

“Eheheh, thanks Erwin.” Yukari scratched her fluffy hair whilst pleased by Erwin’s compliment.

“Also, what’s the P.1000 Ratte? I’ve never heard of that tank before…”

Yukari perked up immediately. “The P.1000 Ratte was a Wunderwaffe proposed by the director of Krupp, Edward Grotte. It was planned to be a tank of colossal proportions, weighing over a 1000 tons-”

“A thousand tons?!” Erwin gawked for a moment. “That’s not a tank, that’s a battleship.”

Yukari grinned. “Exactly. Because of this, it was called the Landkreuzer. It also would’ve had an equally powerful armament, it’s main cannon was to be a 280mm battleship gun from the Scharnhorst class battleships and it’s armor would’ve made most tank guns useless against it. Hitler was enamoured by the idea but Albert Speer cancelled it in 1943 before a prototype could be made. Heinz Guderian himself summed it up as saying, ‘Hitler’s fantasies sometimes shifted into the gigantic.’”

“Wow...So wait, you're saying the Germans crew one?” Erwin was beginning to feel disbelief, along with the others who were assembled after Yukari had given her lecture.

“Well, when we, the Anglerfish Team first met Faber, he muttered the word, ‘[Ratte]’, but when I asked, he said he couldn’t confirm or deny that they used a Ratte. And just now, I asked Hans, but he said no too…”

Momo fixed her monocle. “H-hold on, if the Ratte is so big, then how come we haven’t seen it?” Anzu and Yuzu nodded, the former just eating sweet potatoes.

“That’s the thing. I have a hunch it’s the P.1000 Ratte, the Germans crew, but they must’ve hidden it very well...Anyways, I wonder what tanks the Allied soldiers use?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've read this far, thanks!  
> This is my first GuP fanfiction and first story I've published on here.


	11. The Kriegsmarine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Faber and three of his men go exploring the Zuikakau ship.

“Wait, did you say we’re on a ship?” Otto stated his disbelief. Earlier that morning, the Duck, Mallard, and Rabbit Teams were told about Faber and the other soldiers. Duck didn’t really care, Rabbit Team became hyped, saying something about how it sounded straight out of a sci-fi novel, and Mallard Team’s commander, Sodoko, of course said something about them abiding by rules. Just as the excitement died down, Faber and Otto walked right into the Ooarai team hanger, apparently to check on the process of the Wundermotor. While talking back and forth, Saori mentioned that they were on a ship.

“Yeah, we’re on something called a School Ship. They’re massive ships that carry entire cities.” she answered.

“W-wow...I thought we were on an island or something.” Otto rubbed his head, which was shaved.

“I guess not then…amazing, something of this size really blows the [König der Lüfte] out of the air then. Is there really an interior to this ship?”

“Yup. I wouldn’t recommend going down there though.” Anzu ate a sweet potato. When the two Germans asked why, Sodoko informed them, 

“It’s a slum filled with delinquents. They’re pretty nasty too…”

Faber and Otto looked at each other for a split second before Faber smoothly said, “Can’t be that bad compared to Germany post-Treaty of Versailles. Ugh, it was absurd. People burned money because there was too much of it, there were paramilitaries everywhere...well, according to my father anyways.”

Otto, turning to where the Leopon team was examining the Wundermotor, walked over. “How’s it going?”

To the shock of the Ooarai girls, the Leopon Team sighed in defeat. Satoko, looking the most dejected, breathed, “This thing is a genuine piece of alien tech. Screw this, it’s too complicated.”

“Oh dear...Well, I guess we’ll be here for a while then. Also, you're called Hoshino, correct?”

Hoshino perked up. “Yeah, what is it?”

“This is very out of nowhere, but I’m very sorry. A few days ago I snuck in here to steal parts from you all and you walked in on me, and I impulsively knocked you out by throwing a piston head. Sorry.”

“O-oh, I see. Well, you said you’d help us repair our tanks so we’ll be even in the end.”

“Thanks. Why do you need these tanks anyways? We never asked…” Otto looked around at the tanks, recognizing many just like when he snuck in.

Miho answered. “It’s for a sport we do called Sensha-do. It’s where we use tanks and fight each other in a sort of mock-battle style.” Almost immediately afterwards Miho added, “I know, it sounds crazy huh?” Because Faber and Otto seemed to make faces of disgust and bewilderment at the same time.

“Sorry, it’s just that...We’ve seen some pretty gruesome things regarding [Panzers]. No one dies or anything, right?” Faber said hopefully at the end.

Anzu said in reply, “People die doing normal sports, right? Besides, all of our tanks are modified so we don’t get hurt. Unless we stick our heads out of the cupola.”

“Yikes. Better not do that then.”

“Well at least we know why you have all these tanks. We all thought this was some sort of military school, with all the weapons. Although color me surprised, you have a Porsche Tiger of all the [Panzers] you could’ve used.”

“We’re on a budget. We can’t just buy new tanks, we had to scour the entire ship for them.” Momo filled in.

“And what’s wrong with the Tiger(P)? It’s got good armor and a 88mm gun!” said the Leopon Team somewhat in outrage, as Otto sounded quite disdained that they used a Tiger(P).

“I was there when they tested the Porsche Tiger for the first time. Hitler marvelled it’s gun and armor, but Albert Speer mentioned it’s engine and tracks. Seconds later it sunk into the mud and I ended up laughing at its rather pathetic performance. Oh well, if it gets the job done then go for it.” Otto remarked with a near condescending tone, which provoked the Leopon Team(and the Student Council to an extent)to pout.

Before he could make anymore tank remarks, Faber covered Otto’s mouth and asked the Student Council, “You wouldn’t mind if we explored this ship a little bit, right? The slums that the bowl cut girl mentioned.”

“Well...If you don’t make a big deal of it or get caught, then sure. Just don’t go in looking…” Anzu waved her hand at the appearance of Faber and Otto. “Like that.”

“Right, got it.”

“What kind of tanks do you guys have?” Yukari energetically shouted.

“How many times are you going to ask, I’m not going to confirm or deny that I command the P.1000 Ratte.”

“Naw, not just that, I mean, Erwin said you guys had a Tiger 1, do you have any other tanks?”

“Not sure if we should-”

“Otto, please stop. We have a number of German tanks, and the one I use myself is a Konigstiger.”

“Wow, a Tiger II, huh?”

“Just like Kuromorimine. It’s all German tanks.” Miho added.

“I’m guessing that school is another school that happens to do Panzerfahren?”

“What?”

“What?”

At seeing everyone’s confused faces, Faber realized what he just said. “Sorry, for some reason ‘Sensha-do’ translated into Panzerfahren in German. A-anyways, I think we’ll take our leave considering we’re not here to do anything except check that the Wundermotor is doing alright.”

As the two walked back into the forest, Otto muttered, “You’re not serious about going to explore some slums, right?”

“Of course I was serious. After all you can’t really scold me or anything, you’ve been fiddling with that rifle cane of yours ever since we were brought here.”

“Barbed wire?”

“Well this is supposed to be a slum. Of course there’d be wire to block people, Eric.”

“Do you have cutters, Clemons?” Eric held out his hand. When none was given, he sighed.

“Here.” Walking forward, Ratte loader Ralph took a heavily serrated knife from a thigh holster and with a semi-loud scraping of metal sawed down the barbed wire.

“Well there you go. Come on, let’s look around this ship before any of the delinquents wake up.” Faber commanded. Unlike his usual officer's attire, he wore a long sleeved cotton sweater with black pants. He still wore his gloves, eyepatch, and jackboots. As the 4 continued to walk deeper and deeper into the ship's interior, the more they marvelled at the ship.

“This is one big ship, huh?”

“Definitely. I wonder what the battleships back in the Kriegsmarine would look like compared to this carrier.” The 3 men accompanying Faber on their journey into the ship wore blue and white Kriegsmarine uniforms, caps included. Interestingly they also looked similar in appearance, blue eyed with brown hair. The 3 Kriegsmariners marvelled and talked about the ship until Faber stopped them.

“Do you hear that, you 3?” he said to them abruptly.

“Sounds like...singing?” Eric rubbed his ears.

“[Ja.]”

“Wanna go look for whoever it is? We have nothing to do anyways.” Clemons offered. Everyone agreed. And so they began to trail the sound of the singing. It was a woman(or young girl)’s voice, and following it they went every which way. Eventually, they came to a pole leading down a pit, and after some consideration, all of them went down, crashing into a pile of crates and boxes. Except Faber. He just jumped down, and landed perfectly. “You really are a super soldier huh?” Clemons coughed while he got up. Again, the 4 followed the voice, and came to a stone wall. “Is this a dead end?”

Wordlessly, Ralph threw himself forward and with a loud clunk, the wall gave way and rotated around, revealing it as a fake wall. “Come on. We’re almost there.” quietly his voice followed. Walking through the fake wall, in the left of the small hallway was a doorway, where the voice was coming from. Walking into the doorway, the 4 soldiers saw a girl with pale white skin and long white hair singing the song, “Drunken Sailor” albeit in botched English. Looking around they saw a few others sitting in what appeared to be a bar, a girl dressed as a maid or bar tender behind the counter, 2 others wearing sailor outfits, one stocky and black haired, and the other shorter with red fluffy hair. The only other person was a girl with lightly tanned skin, long black hair worn in a ponytail, and a black jacket and boots.

“Why don’tcha come in?” the tanned girl said, turning around to face the 4 soldiers.

“Oh, no we were just exploring this ‘ship,’” Clemons pointed over his shoulder and began to edge backwards. “We’ll leave if you desire.”

The red haired girl suddenly laughed, and lurched from her seat, seemingly drunk with a bottle of rum in hand. “Do you even know where ya are? You’re in a city sized ship after all…*hic*”

Faber clenched his hand. “[Scheiße!] Your right…”

“Well, ya might as well just come in and have a drink then.”

“Aye.” the tanned girl gestured to the bartender for some drinks. “Come and sit. Faber Eisenherz.”

Silence hit the Germans.

“How do you know who I am?” Faber's voice was cold and hard. He clenched his fists again.

“I’ve got eyes and ears everywhere mate. Don’t worry, we won’t snitch.” As she stated her intentions, the others turned around or looked up. “I’m Ogin, captain of this fine vessel. The buff girl is Murakami,” Murakami nodded. “Rums the drunken girl,” 

“Aye.”

“Flint over there, singing, or was,” Flint flashed a peace sign. “And Cutlass, our bartender. Welcome to our bar, Donzoko.”

Faber, Eric, Clemons, and Ralph all had different reactions. Faber’s face eased, but he still had the aura of a prowling tiger. Eric seemed perfectly content with the situation, grinning a bit. Clemons’ eyes darted about, studying the place with an almost nervous attitude. Ralph stayed silent, his face completely unchanged. All, however, accepted Ogin’s offer wordlessly, the latter 3 sitting down at various points in the bar, and Faber sat down at the bar, next to Ogin.

“Drinks are served.” Cutlass quietly informed as she slid down the bar with glasses of drinks. Faber caught the second one-which seemed to be for him-and looked at it with a surveying eye. It was a yellow-auburn colored liquid, with a lemon slice on the glass. Taking a sip, Faber sighed in relief. It was good to drink alcohol again. The Ratte crew had run out of French and German wine a long time ago, and the only thing that had a high amount of alcohol was the Sauerkraut that the crew kept making out of boredom. “Do those gentlemen want anything?” Cutlass said emotionlessly.

Faber turned to his crewmen. “[Do you want anything?]”

“[Ja.]” was the response of all three. Cutlass began to mix more drinks.

“Why aren’t you all too young to be drinking?” Clemons' voice was a mix of curiosity and concern.

“*hic* Naw man, it’s all fine.” Rum stumbled up from her seat and lurched towards where Clemons sat in the corner of the bar at one of the tables, throwing herself down right in front of him. “Stuffs non-alcoholic anyways!”

Clemons surveyed Rum head to toe. “Then you're just being a fake drunk, aren’t you?” Cutlass placed down a glass of brown yellow liquid in front of the man. “Thank you.” he added on.

“Whaaaat?” Rum slurred.

Eric thanked Cutlass, with Ralph taking his drink silently, although he did nod. To the amusement of the others, the two silent and stoic characters made an odd moment of eye contact when Cutlass was handing Ralph his drink. “Very similar, aren’t they?” Ogin remarked as Cutlass returned behind the bar.

“[Tatsächlich], ever since I met Ralph, he’s always been like this. Silent and stoic. He’s a bit scary though.”

“Really? Well, Cutlass does have some strong thumbs. How is Ralph scary?”

Faber put a hand up to think. “Once, a squad of Allied soldiers snuck up on us and held several of the crewmen at gunpoint.”

Ogin nodded. “I’m listening.”

“Ralph had left to go do maintenance, and when he returned, he eliminated all the soldiers in a few seconds. See knife of his?” Faber gestured over to Ralph, who was drinking with one hand and in his other flipping his serrated blade. “According to Hans, my second in command, he took out two guards with that knife, and then gunned down the rest in one sweeping motion with an MG-42. While holding said gun with only one arm. I wasn’t around, I was uhh...relieving myself.”

Murakami, who had stayed at the bar, Ogin, and to an extent, Cutlass, went a bit wide-eyed at the story, and definitely not at that Faber missed it all using the bathroom. “H-hold on, you’ve gotta be talking about..5-10 guys, right?” Murakami asked, speaking up for the first time.

“If Hans and the others didn’t lie on the body count, I’d say about 20. Or maybe more. Anyways, Ralph is silent and deadly.”

Flint, finished from singing, looked around at the 3 sailors. Eric and Clemons wore white uniforms with a matching white sailors cap, both caps being emblazoned with the symbol of the Kreigsmarine, although noticeably the swastikas were scratched out. Ralph, meanwhile, while the others wore white uniforms, he wore blue. In terms of layout the uniform was the exact same, except the white was replaced by blue and vice versa, and he wore a cap that more resembled a German tankers cap, which was also blue. “So, are these laddies tankers or sailors?” she asked.

“We were Kreigsmarine. Then we got pulled to join Faber’s unit.” Eric polished off his drink. “Anyways, we should probably get going, we’ve been down here for a while. Don’t get stuck drinking alcohol Faber.”

“Right...So how do we leave?”

Ogin smirked, and Faber got a bad feeling. However before he could act on it, the door suddenly flew open with violence.

“[oi kraut, chto ty delayesh' v takom meste?]”

“[What? I don’t speak Bolshevik.]” Faber said to the man in German.

The man, disgruntled, took a swig of Vodka from a bottle he held in his right hand, and adjusted his ushanka. “Sorry, I meant to say, ‘What are you doing down in a place like this?’ [Nemsti.]”


	12. A Rat, a Shark, and a Bear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Bolshevik interrupts the party.

“Who’s he?” Murakami asked, getting up from her seat and cracking her knuckles.

“A Russian tanker who came here alongside us Germans.” Faber pointed at him. “What’s your name again? Nicholas? Niklav?”

“*Grunt*. That’s my brother's name. I’m Niko, idiot. Niklav and Willy asked me to trail you 4, so what’s up with this place?”

“Why it’s our *hic* quaint little bar down in a place that most don’t like.” Rum stumbled upwards, still acting drunk. “Can I have a swig of that?” she drunkenly mumbled.

“[Da.]” and before anyone could stop him, Niko handed the vodka to Rum, who took one deep swing and immediately spit it back out.

“What the hell is this!? Gasoline!?”

Taking the bottle back, Niko laughed heartily. “96% alcohol vodka [друг].”

Rum and the others gawked at him. Except the Germans. Rum remarked, “Geez, and I only drink 4% or less.”

Faber turned his attention back to Ogin. “What do you want?”

Ogin smirked again. “I thought we’d all have some fun, so complete our challenges and we’ll escort you out ourselves.” The other girls nodded.

“Alright then.” Ralph, Eric, and Clemons left their seats and stood together in a line. “Let’s get started then.” they said simultaneously.

Rum stepped forwards first, and two flags in hand, began to rapidly swing her ups up and down, signaling something. Eric cleverly answered, “What makes a great battleship? The ship itself or the captain and crew?” Rum nodded eagerly, and Ogin and Flint clapped a bit. “Now see if you can tell what I’m signaling, just out of curiosity.” Pulling out two flags of his own, he rapidly waved his arms.

“All guns to 3o’clock.” Rum answered in turn. Eric did another signal. “Fire on the  _ HMS Hood, _ ” Another signal, even faster. “Incoming bombers, prepare to dive.” One final flag signal. “Prinz Eugen under bombardment, return fire.”

“Good job! These signals are quite complicated as well.” Eric grinned broadly. Rum, and Ogin shared a brief look.  _ Those signals were oddly war based. _

Flint stepped forward next, with a tangle of knots hanging from her arm. “Try untying this.” she said simply.

“That, I believe, is an anchor’s knot, albeit much more complicated.” Without another second, Clemons stepped forward and just like a machine, unwound the knot, holding up the rope.

“Wow, that was quick.” Flint said in surprise.

Next, Cutlass wordlessly held out her hand for a thumb fight. Wordlessly, Ralph sat down at the bar, and interlocking fingers they began. Their fingers grappled and wrestled at an incredible speed, and eventually, Ralph pinned Cutlass’ thumb under his own. “You're strong.” Cutlass said emotionlessly.

Ralph nodded in silent acknowledgement. “I’m guessing it’s Faber’s turn now?” he muttered.

“Yup!” Murakami stood up, cracking her knuckles and stretching her shoulders. “My challenge is to see who would win a fist fight!”

Then, to the concern of everyone present, the face of the Germans twisted to say,  _ Is this girl insane? _ Clemons spoke up, sweat of nerves on his face. “Are you sure? Faber is incredibly strong, and it would be bad if he broke something.” Even Ralph looked concerned, and he was as stoic as a stone.

“Of course! Stronger the better!” Without another word, Murakami lunged forward and threw a punch, which Faber dodged quite easily. She continued to punch and Faber continued to dodge, with Murakami even throwing her hat like a boomerang to try and get at least a single hit in. Faber simply caught the hat and threw it back, with even more force. Murakami dodged and the hat crumpled itself onto Flint’s face. Throwing an uppercut, Faber was forced to dodge backwards, but stumbled, allowing Murakami to strike him in the stomach. However what happened was the complete opposite of what was expected.

“Eyah!” instead of Faber yelling in pain, it was Murakami who yelped in pain. “What the heck, is your body made of steel or something!?” Murakami tried to throw another punch, but Faber said disgruntled,

“Enough!” and threw a punch downwards at her extended fist, and with a sickening crack Faber had just broken Murakami’s entire hand.

Several minutes later, after Murakami had her hand heavily bandaged into a cast, Ogin had one last challenge. “Beat me at drinking our infamous ‘Habanero Club’ drink.” The Germans all looked at each other, uneasy. They definitely drank, but outdrinking someone and then leaving the ship was out of the question.

“*hic*” they then all turned to the only other male in the room. Niko, still holding his bottle of vodka which somehow hadn’t run out. Sitting down at the bar and taking a deep breath, he took the first shot of the liquor and downed it all in one go. Ogin did as well. The liquor was spicy, and Niko felt it burn on it’s way down his throat and into his stomach, but when the next one came Niko downed it all in one go as well. Niko’s determination and steely gaze impressed and actually unnerved the girls of Donzoko. Perhaps Ogin chose the wrong person to have a drinking contest with?

Several minutes later and way too many shot glasses later, Ogin’s head fell against the wooden bartop, and she began to snore. “[I win.]” Niko laughed as he downed one last shot, then to the shock of all, took his vodka and downed yet another swig.

“Geez, and we said we’d escort you guys out but now Oyabun is out of it…” Rum mumbled to herself.

Handing the bottle of vodka to Rum, he instructed her, “Give her a shot of this. This stuff wakes you up instead of putting you to sleep.” With those instructions in mind, Rum took a sniff of the vodka, winced, and leaning Ogin’s head back, poured some of the volatile liquor into her mouth and closed it. A few seconds passed...Before Ogin violently flipped backwards and coughed hard.

“Welp, I’m awake now. Let’s get going then.”

After quite a bit of walking, they finally reached the upper decks of the Ooarai school ship. “That reminds me…” Ogin suddenly said. “We’ve gotta check on something that we had brought up here, wanna come see?” There was a general agreement amongst the men, and they followed the Shark Team through the streets and to where Ooarai kept their tanks. The group walked into the hanger, and Faber noticed something large covered in a blue tarp, sitting at the far end of the hanger, which he hadn’t noticed before, and without a word, Ogin tore the tarp off, revealing a large tank.

“Say hello to the Landship! She’s a real beauty ain’t she?” she said, voice full of pride.

“This is a British Mark IV tank, isn’t it? My father told me about them when he fought in the First World War. He said that he and his men fired until their machine guns turned red but couldn’t scratch the British tanks.”

“Got history huh?” Rum said with a pointed hand.

Faber nodded. Eric whistled, before asking them, “Are you going to join that Panzerfahren team they got here?”

“Panzerfahren?” the entire Shark Team said confused.

“It’s the German way of saying Sensha-do, it seems. It just comes out like that.” Clemons explained. “Anyways, are you going to join their team?”

“Mhm!” Rum said eagerly. “We do owe Momo-chan after all!”

“Do you mean the monocle-”

“Don’t call me Momo-chan!” The Germans snapped around to see the Student Council and Miho Nishizumi and her team walk into the hangar. “Oh it’s you guys, what’re you all doing here?” Momo walked over to the group, the rest trailing behind.

“Us or them?” Faber and Ogin said simultaneously.

“Both of you guys.”

Faber answered first. “We went into that ‘Johannesburg’ the girl with the bowl cut mentioned, then we ran into them.”

“We talked and had some drinks, then we had some challenges, so we decided to escort 'em out. We’re also here to check on the Landship here.”

“...I see. Anyways, you Germans should get back to the forest before someone comes by.”

“I’m here too, [malyshka].” Niko polished off the rest of the vodka and put the bottle into his jacket and adjusted his brown ushanka.

“What did you just call me?”

“It means little girl, [malyshka.]” Niko said smug.

“I-I am not a little girl!” Momo cried out before she began to berate the Russian.

In the midst of all this, Miho was thinking.  _ What’re we going to do for practice? We’ll be fighting against a number of different schools at the Festival, and while we can practice against each other, it might not be enough… _

“You're thinking about what we should do for training, aren’t you, Nishizumi-dono?” Yukari appeared, patting Miho on the back.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s just that training against each other might not be enough, and we can’t ask the other schools before the festival, especially with  them around.” Miho gently nudged towards the group of Germans and the Russian. Momo was still bickering with them, while Shark Team sat off to the side on their Mark IV, laughing.

Yukari went into deep thought. “Hmmm, your right…I could try recon…” Yukari continued to scheme, when a lightbulb lit up inside her head. “Ooh! I got an idea!”

“What is it?” Miho and Anzu asked, the latter after tearing her attention away from Momo.

“The soldiers have tanks, right? We could train by fighting them!”


	13. The Best training Partners

Yukari squealed her idea so loudly that everyone in the hanger heard it, which included the rest of the Ooarai Sensha-do team which was walking into the hanger when they heard the commotion. There was an uneasy silence following Yukari’s idea.

“Yukari-san, are you sure? I mean they’ve seen real combat before, so having them do Sensha-do would be…” leaning in, Hana whispered into the girl’s ear.

“But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? I mean, this could be the chance of a lifetime, training with real tank aces from WW2!”

“Oh yeah, that’s true. I mean still, only with their consent, right?” Saori bobbed back and forth on her heels and balls of her feet. “Hey, mister Eisenherz, what do you think?”

Faber put a hand on his chin, in deep consideration. “[Warum nicht?] Sure, I’ll go ask my men if they want to have a bout with you.” Before anyone could stop them, Faber, Eric, Clemons, and Ralph(and Niko)all left the hanger with speed and the door shut.

Silence followed, and Momo squeaked. “Did they ever tell us what tanks they have?”

“Well, Eisenherz did tell us that he has a Tiger II. Other than that, nothing else.”

“There’s also that Hans guy, he had a modified Panzer II C. And like we said, we also spotted a Tiger 1.” Erwin spoke up, her teammates nodding in agreement. “And if Faber gets the support of his crew, we’ll have one tough opponent. He told me that he fought alongside Erwin Rommel as a Lieutenant. And now he leads a unit we know nothing about, not even it’s name or what it’s vehicles are. And that Hans guy was also in the 7th Panzer Division as well…”

“There were also those 3 Kreigsmarines, remember?” Ogin pointed out. “Based on how they completed our challenges, I bet they’ve manned some powerful ships before. So we’ve got veterans as well.” The rest of the Shark Team agreed. “Although...why would there be sailors in a tank unit?”

“Well, I’ve got a hunch that they have a tank known as the P.1000 Ratte. I’m not sure everyone else would wanna be bored by the details again, but long story short, it was a planned 1000 ton tank with a battleship turret as its main gun.” Yukari went back to muttering about her hunch of the Ratte. “And since there were Kreigsmarines among Faber’s men, that must mean they were pulled to man the main gun…”

“Yukari, you’re doing it again.” Miho put a hand on the enthusiast's shoulder. “Besides, I don’t think they’d use a tank like that, even if they had it. If they did, it would be a very one sided battle for us.”

The door to the hanger opened and standing there was Faber, no longer in his casual clothing. He was back in his officer’s uniform, with it’s peaked cap and leather trench coat. “They’ve all agreed to this training match. What will be the location and time?”

“Perhaps 12:00? We can use one of the fields nearby here for our match.”

“[Verstanden]” was all Faber said before he turned to leave. Faber departed from the girls, remarking to them, “We will be there. [Tschüss].”

“You’re going to do that war sport with them!?” Willy jumped off his log to protest further but Faber silenced him.

“They asked, and everyone else agreed. Don’t worry, as they put it, everything has been safe-proofed, and besides, Americans like you play football right? And you can get killed doing that.”

“Y-yeah but…”

“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine. It’s not like I’m shooting with intent to kill.” Faber disappeared into the woods to retrieve his men and tanks, leaving Willy with a sense of dread.

“They’re gonna be late if they don’t get here soon!” Momo seethed. It was almost 12:00, and there was no sign of the Germans. “Nishizumi-san, have you thought of any good strategies to fight them?”

Miho gave this some thought. “Well...I figured since they're from another time set in WW2, I imagine they’d use a Blitzkrieg style tactic, to rush us all at once. Erwin, you said they were repairing a Tiger?”

“Yes commander. And Guderian remembers that Eisenherz said he had a Königstiger.” There they all were, standing in a field with their tanks. In front of them was the forest's eastern side, and directly behind them was a tall hill, perfect for a defensive position. “It has been a little while though…”

“Wait!” Everybody straightened up. “I hear engines.”


	14. The Panzer Elite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The soldiers arrive, with the Panzerlied at their tongues.

Emerging from the forest was a line of 5 tanks, rumbling deeply and loudly. “Ooh! Two Tigers, two Panthers, and a Konigstiger!” Yukari squealed. From atop the cupolas, the tank’s commanders stood with their bodies out, and as they drew close, the Ooarai girls could hear:

“[Ob’s stürmt oder schneit, Ob die Sonne uns lacht, Der Tag glühend heiß Oder eiskalt die Nacht, Verstaubt sind die Gesichter, Doch froh ist unser Sinn, Ja unser Sinn. Es braust unser Panzer. Im Sturmwind dahin.]” the Germans sang, they sang so loudly they nearly drowned out the rumbling of their engines. Sitting tall in the Königstiger cupola, Faber gazed upon his opponents. From behind the formation of heavy tanks, Hans in his Panzer II C came out, sitting in the cupola as well.

“[Alle Panzer halten an]” Faber held up a hand. The tanks stopped in place, in one perfect line. Two Tigers, two Panthers, a Panzer II, and the centerpiece of it all, a King Tiger II, which was colored entirely white, like the snow. On the sides of all the tanks’ turrets was the Iron Cross. All the other tanks except for Hans’ Panzer II had a sandy paint job. Faber disembarked and walked forwards to Miho and the rest of the commanders, the rest of the Ooarai girls watching from their respective tanks, hanging out of the hatches. “[Guten tag.] Is there any safety gear we need to use for this? On that note, our tanks use a special chamber system that prevents damage to whoever is inside.”

“Yeah, we’ve gotta modify your tanks so they’ll react to the League Munitions we fire at you.” Satoko piped up. “So if you’d please follow us back to our hanger first…”

“[Verstanden.] All tanks, follow them back to their hanger!” The tanks roared to life once more and began to follow the Leopon Team back to the hanger, Faber hopping onto his Tiger II as it passed him. The Leopon team were riding alongside the German tank column in a Volkswagen Kubelwagen, and as Faber and the other tank commanders noticed, they were studying their tanks very closely from their truck.

“How modified are these tanks? We noticed they don’t use the overlapping wheels design.” Tsuchiya pointed out, despite the fact that she was driving.

“Well, Otto and the others found that the overlapping wheels design made the ground pressure worse, not improving it, so we melted down the wheels to make new ones and used the remaining scrap to reinforce where the armor was thin. Otto also made a number of technical changes, such as upgrading the engines and improving things like the transmission and the turning speed of the turret.”

“Wow, he must be pretty good!” Looking more closely, there were indeed thick armor plates bolted onto the German tanks, especially on the sides. “The turret and hull look to be the same dimensions too!”

One of the Tiger commanders spoke up. “He’s very good. He designed a massive zeppelin known as the [Konig der Lufte], or King of the Skies, he made it possible for the Bismarck to dive under the ocean, and he even made Fabers’-mmph.” The tanker's mouth was covered by one of his fellow crewmen, who popped out of a side hatch to cover his mouth, and whispered something into his ear. “Ah, nevermind what I said about Faber. Anyways, I’m Carl. The other Tiger commander is named Lennard.” Lennard, a man with a buzz cut and wearing a stahlhelm instead of the typical tanker’s hat, grunted in response. “The commanders of the Panthers are Peter and Konrad. Peter is the one with the bandage across his face, and Konrad is the one wearing his shirt open.” The respective tankers nodded or waved.

“Wow,” Hoshino said as she waved back. “What’s the King of the Skies though?”

Faber explained this one. “It’s a massive airship built by the Luftwaffe. Because of it’s design, it’s a flying aircraft carrier, capable of destroying tanks and other aircraft with ease thanks to its hundreds of guns, and capable of releasing dozens of jet fighters to intercept Allied bombers and fighters.”

“Sounds terrifying.”

“It is. I flew on it once for a mission, and no Allied Aircraft could get remotely close. Looks like we’re here now.” The tanks rolled into the Ooarai tank lot, and the crewmen disembarked, allowing the female mechanics of the Leopon Team to swoop upon their tanks, beginning their work to prepare the war machines for the match.

“So uhhh...Do you think they stand a chance or anything?”

“I think they do, Lennard.” Faber said in response. “Me and Otto watched them once, and they did everything quite well. They shot accurately, drove well, and reloaded fast.”

“Better not hold back then, right?” Konrad itched at his chest.

“[Ja. We need to be cautious too, that Miho frau...She’s quite a tactician despite her appearance, and that girl who calls herself Erwin, the one with the cap, she’s apparently a big fan of Rommel, so I expect she may contribute to their plan with a tactic in the likeness of Rommel himself.]”

Meanwhile, back in the open plains, Miho and the rest of the commanders were sitting around on the grass, a map of the area in the midst of them. “I’m guessing they may go through with their attack all at once, and because they have about half of our numbers, it’ll be hard for them to sneak up without us noticing that they're gone. This battle is in the style of an annihilation match too, so we have to keep note of that.”

“We have to keep an eye out for any trump cards too. Remember when we had to fight that Maus Kuromorimine had?” Erwin pointed out.

Yukari nodded, adding, “We have to keep track of Mister Eisenherz’s Konigstiger too, it has thick angled armor, so I imagine he’d use it to tank most shots while his men flank around us.”

“Guderian’s right. They also have a Panzer II, and based on when we saw Hans drive it, it’s very fast. We have to keep an eye out for him too.”

Miho nodded at all of their suggestions. “They use tanks with strong frontal armor, so flanking is the ideal tactic here. We might also bog them down if we can get to the hill. Then we can pick them off from a range at our leisure.”

“Th-their back! Nyaa~!” Anteater Team commander Nekonya squealed. Engines rumbling, the German tanks came back around sitting in front of them, and all the commanders disembarked. Standing in a line in front of each other, Ooarai bowed saying, “I hope we have a good match!”

The Germans extending their right arms, put them straight forward palm downwards, giving all the Ooarai girls the sudden fear that they would do the Nazi salute. Instead, they crossed their extended arms over their chests, palms downward, and said in German, “[Glück und Ruhm], Fortune and Glory!” The two sides flocked off and mounted their respective tanks. However, just as the Germans began pulling away to move to their starting point, Miho heard this:

“[Sieg heil!]”

“[Jawohl!]” was the united battle cry.

Miho and the rest of the team began to drive away to their starting point, which, fortunately for them, was set near the base of the hill they were considering using for defense. Taking a flare gun, Miho counted down the final seconds until the match began. “We are in position.” Faber’s voice cut through the radio.

“How did they...Nevermind...3...2...1…!” Miho fired the white flare, signaling the beginning of battle.


	15. The Thunder of Guns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so the battle begins. Faber and his "Stahlratts" vs Ooarai.

“Alright, Turtle Team and Hippo Teams, take up defensive positions on the hill. The terrain is hilly ending in abrupt, small cliffs, so watch out for flankers.”

“Yes ma’am!” Anzu and Erwin cried. The Hetzer 38(t) and the Stug III turned around and began to climb the hill. The hill was rocky, somewhat steep, and had a flat top. The perfect sniping position.

“Duck Team, I want you to scout out their positions, and watch out for the Panzer II, it’s fast. Everyone else, follow me, we’ll use the hills to our advantage and flank them when it’s time.”

“Yes commander!” Soon the entire team was off and rolling, going over the hills and following close to the Panzer IV H. Soon the entire team came to a clearing, where the hills subsided. There were large clumps of trees and bushes sitting about. A very good place to be ambushed, unfortunately. “Let’s get moving, we could be ambushed at any time. Duck Team, how’s the reconnaissance going?”

“We don’t see any of the-C-crap!” Noriko Isobe was heard shouting to her team over the radio, “Get the gun around, and pick up speed, we gotta outrun this guy-!” before the radio was cut short by a horrifically loud sound that resembled the whirring of a Wirbelwind Flak truck. “Sorry! We got taken out by the Panzer II, it’s heading your way!”

“They're already here!?” Saori exclaimed. Just as she finished her sentence, the steel blue Panzer II came flying over the hill, speeding right into the Ooarai formation, and before the Ooarai Team could get their guns turned in time, Hans, in the turret, pulled down the trigger and unleashed a whirlwind of 20mm AP rounds. Speeding between the tanks, the Panzer II blasted at them, and when it entered an opening, the M3 Lee tried to take a shot at it, only for it to drift and dodge the entire shell, before returning fire.

“That’s some impressive drifting skill!” Tsuchiya remarked. Finally, after about 1-2 minutes of Hans’ Panzer II drifting and shooting, it drove off down the middle path, dodging any shells thrown his way. “Finally, he’s gone. Let’s get moving before we get attacked.” Tsuchiya pressed down the accelerator, but instead was greeted with a long, loud, grinding of metal.

Miho turned on her radio. “Everyone, are you alright?”

“We’re still in, but our treads aren’t!”

“That guy hit the treads of the M3!”

“Dead in the water!”

Miho clenched her hand. “He shot out all of our tracks...Mako, can you see if you can move the Panzer a bit?”

“Hai.” Mako pressed down on the accelerator, but the Panzer IV went only one way on one tread. “He shot out our treads too. All of our treads.”

Miho commanded, “Everyone, try to move at least a bit. Leopon Team, see if you can repair our tracks before-”

*BOOM* Miho dodged down as an 88mm shell hit the side of the Panzer IV turret, violently cleaving off the Schürzen, and Miho’s fear became true. Down the middle road ahead of them the two Panthers and two Tigers were rumbling down, unleashing a barrage of shells. “This isn’t looking good Miho!” Hana fired a 75mm round into the Panther, which harmlessly ricocheted off and into the air.

“Nishizumi-dono, we gotta get out of here! We’re caught between hammer and anvil, we can’t move!”

Miho, fortunately, came to a decision. She grabbed her radio. “Everyone, try and hold out for as long as possible! I’m going to call for help!”

On the hilltop, Erwin and Anzu sat hanging out of their tanks. Erwin was using binoculars to look for the German tanks, but she didn’t see them. Suddenly, she heard the sound of creaking metal to her left and turned. Setting down a number of folding chairs, Otto, Willy, and a few other Germans and Allied Soldiers, sat down to watch the battle unfold. “What’re you guys doing here?” Erwin inquired.

“We thought we’d see how Faber and his men do against you guys.” Willy took a swig of juice from a bottle. “From what I can tell he’s doing great. I’d check your radio if I were you, Erwin.”

Erwin checked her radio, and heard the command. “We’re pinned down by the Tigers and Panthers! Hippo Team, Turtle Team, I need you to flank around while they're preoccupied and get them off of us, and hopefully take them out. We can’t move, their Panzer II immobilized us all.”

“Aw crud! Oryou, get us moving! Caesar, load AP rounds! We’ve gotta go relive our allies!”

“Yes ma’am!” The Stug III lurched forward and down the slope, with the Hetzer 38(t) following close behind.

Back down in the opening, Peter in his Panther shouted another order. “[Feuer.]” and a 75mm shell flew from the barrel, impacting cleanly with the hull of the M3 Lee. Smoke and a simulated fire poured from the tank, and a white flag popped from the top. “[Well now we know what happens to when we disable their tanks.]” Peter flinched as a 75mm and 47mm shell from the Char B1 Bis impacted against the glacis of his Panther. The 47mm bounced off harmlessly, although the 75mm jolted the tank. A shot from one of the Tigers went into the Char B1, disabling the 75mm hull gun.

“[Wait a minute...Where’s their Mark IV?]” Peter turned to look right too late as a 57mm shell impacted the side of the Panther. The extra armor stopped the shell’s killing power. “[Crap!]” Peter grabbed his radio and called out, “[Their Mark IV is on our right flank, and my turret is jammed.]”

Lennard’s gruff voice followed. “[Pull back and repair it. I’ll cover you.]”

“[Dankeschön.]” Ordering his driver, Peter’s Panther drove backwards, and Lennard’s Tiger filled the gap, now angling his armor. As it drove backwards, Peter’s Panther fired a shot at the Mark IV, but the shot missed and impacted the hill it was hiding behind instead. Lennard fired another round at the Tiger(P), which bounced off the angled glacis, and in turn, it fired an 88mm shell right into his side, which he had exposed a bit too much of. A simulated engine fire began, but the crew paid it no mind, as Lennard climbed out of the cupola with a fire extinguisher.

“[Keep shooting. I’ll fix the engine myself.]”

“[Jawohl.]” The barrage, however, continued, and to Peter’s horror, the Mark IV poked back out from the rocks and fired another shot, this time hitting Lennard’s Tiger in it’s right side. Lennard was thrown from the deck, and the engine was now totally disabled by Sensha-do rules. And yet, the white flag didn’t pop up somehow. The Tiger was still going, and it took another barrage, and returned a single shell, which hit the Anteater’s Team Chi-Nu in the gun mantlet, sending it spinning. It’s engine burst into a column of flames, and a white flag popped from it’s turret. “[Lennard are you alright?]” his Tiger’s loader asked, popping his head out. His face was covered in soot.

“[Agh, nevermind me, get the fire before you get burned.]”

Suddenly, Faber’s voice cut into the headpieces of the tankers. “[They’d have called their Stug III and Hetzer 38(t) by now, split up. Pick them off while they’re split.]” Following their orders, the other tanks reversed out of the pathway.

“Yes! We can repair the tracks now!” Satoko and Tsuchiya hopped out, tools in hand. “Hand me that-eek!” Satoko had held her arm out for a hammer when an MG-42 opened up as the German Tanks restreated, causing Satoko and Tsuchiya to throw themselves on the ground. “Are they trying to kill us!?” Tsuchiya yelled at the tankers as they reversed out of the street.

“Probably just trying to scare you guys…” Saori giggled nervously.

The Stug III and Hetzer turned around the corner, followed by the Mark IV. Erwin popped her head out of her Stug III. “You guys alright? It sounded pretty bad over the radio.”

“We’re alright, Erwin. The M3 Lee was hit and taken out by one of the Panthers, and...we’re not sure about the Chi-Nu.”

“How about you guys?” Erwin asked Lennard and his crew. After extinguishing the engine fire amongst other things, they were sitting on their Tiger, sleeves rolled up and covered in soot.

“[Guten tag.] We’re alright, this sport that you do, it’s nice because you don’t have to worry about getting blown apart by a shell.”

“Geez...Have you seen that happen or something? Ah, crap I shouldn’t have asked that.”

“Eh, I’ve gone through quite a bit of battles in this Tiger. If you wanna hear about dead crews, ask Hans.” Lennard wiped off his hand with water, and said to the Ooarai girls, “Hurry up, Faber won’t be waiting forever.”

Meanwhile, over at the Chi-Nu…

“The gun’s completely messed up…” Hoshino looked at the mantlet. The 88mm shell fired by Lennard had gone straight into the mantlet, leaving a large hole, and while it wouldn’t have gone through with all the Sensha-do safety measures, the gun was left twisted and bent. “Well, I’m afraid it won’t work anymore until we take it back for full repairs.”

“Awww…” the 3 gamer girls muttered.

Several minutes later...Miho touched her radio again. “Is everybody ready?”

“Hai!” was the tumultuous response.

“Alright. Panzer vor!”

“There they are!” Yukari called out as she held her head out of the turret. Out in the middle of a field, the 3 tanks were spotted, which suddenly threw up gas grenades, and before anyone could fire, they were seen running off in 3 directions.

“Should we pursue them?”

“Hmmmm...They could be trying to lead us into an ambush, but if we leave them alone they could swing around to hit us again. Alright, go pursue, but keep a careful eye for an ambush. Report to me immediately if you see the Tiger II, Faber is our biggest threat. The teams split up on the hunt. Following the remaining Tiger was Leopon and Hippo Teams. Following one of the Panthers was the Hetzer 38(T) and the Char B1 Bis. Lastly, following the final Panther was the Anglerfish Team and Shark Team.

The Stug III and Tiger(P) followed the Tiger 1 into the woods, where it became dark very quickly. “Keep an eye out, Saemonza. He could be trying to ambush us.”

“Roger that...There it is!” The sandy hull of the Tiger came into view, and with a pull Saemonza fired a 75mm shell right into the glacis. The shell bounced off with a loud scrape. The Porsche fired, it’s 88mm shell ready to hit it’s mark. The Tiger’s engines roared.

“W-what the!?” Hoshino watched as the Tiger turned it’s entire hull on the fly, deflecting the shell.

Inside the Tiger’s cupola, Carl shouted, “[Feuer!]” and the tank returned fire. The shot hit the Porsche dead on, but the smoke cleared and only a dent was seen in the mantlet. “Feh! [Get around to their side!]”

“[Jawohl!]” the driver stomped on the accelerator and the Tiger rushed forwards before stomping on the brakes, scraping their Tiger to face the Porsche’s side and dodging a shell. The Tiger fired right into the enemy's side, and the white flag popped up. “[Alright, let’s find that Stug III.]”

“[Sir, their right there!]” Carl looked to the left, and to his shock, the Stug was directly to their left flank. Even before Carl could utter a command, the 75mm gun of the Stug III blasted their flank with a shell. Smoke pouring from the Tiger, the white flag popped up on the turret.

“Great job!” Erwin grabbed her radio. “We’ve taken out the last Tiger! We lost the Leopon Team though.”

Miho radioed back, “Great job! Go back into the fields and wait, the Student Council should be on their way back as well. They lost the Char B1 though. Me and the Shark Team are pursuing the last Panther.”

“Roger that!”

Coming into a clearing, Miho took note of the arena. It was surrounded on 3 sides by tall cliffs, with plenty of maneuvering room for tanks. The only way for the last Panther to escape was to go into a narrow passageway. The cupola of the Panther opened, and Peter’s bandaged face popped out.

“Surrounded eh?” he muttered to himself. “[Fire on the Mark IV!]” The turret of his Panther began to rotate at an alarming speed.

“Agh! Rum, turn the Landship! Murakami, Cutlass, open fire!” Murakami fired onto the Panther, but their shells bounced. Without a second to spare, the Panther fired it’s powerful shell into the Mark IV. Ogin and the others were thrown around by the shock, and just as Ogin opened the hatch, she saw the white flag pop up. “Damn, we got taken out!”

Hana trained her sights and pulled down the trigger. The round hit the side of the Panther cleanly, but with a bang, the last piece of armor protecting the Panther’s flank was destroyed.

“[Feuer!]” The Panther fired a round which cleaved off more of the Schurzen.

Yukari slammed another round into the chamber, and Mako stepped down on the gas. “Hana, if you can get a shot into his side, fire as soon as you can. We can’t outlast this guy in his Panther, shots against the front won’t be effective. Mako, make sure we’re not in his gun’s line of fire, a good shot from him and we’re out.”

“Alright!” the two girls shouted in response.

“[You’ve got a clear shot!]” Peter was heard shouting in German. “[W-what the!?]” Before his gunner could fire, Mako accelerated the Panzer IV again, this time ramming the side of the Panther, sending it spinning.

“Fire!” With one last shot, the 75mm left the barrel of the Panzer IV and right into the unprotected flank of the Panther. The explosion and smoke was enough. The Panther was out.

“Finally…” Miho breathed out in relief. “Alright, one last tank, then we’re done!”

“Roger that!” everyone responded through their radios.

Faber opened his eyes, and rose from his sitting position atop his Tiger II. 

“[Kommandant, we’re out.] Peter’s voice crackled from the radio.

“Good job.” he said into the handheld. “You’ve all fought well, I’ll take it from here.” He stomped on the roof of his Konigstiger. “[Looks like we’ll have to complete the job ourselves. Panzer vor!]” The engine roared to life and it lurched forward down the road, into the open field. It drove for a few minutes, before it finally came the clearing down the road. Sitting in the middle of the field, the Panzer IV, Stug III, and Hetzer 38(T) sat. The Panzer IV in the middle, the Stug III to it’s right, and the Hetzer to it’s left.

“He’s here…” Momo muttered to herself. Her hand tightened around the 75mm shell she was to load. “Oh, we’re so dead…”

“Final opponent huh? Like the last stand of the Spartans at Thermopylae.”

“Or the last stand of a samurai.”

“Feels like the last stand of the 44th Infantry Division to me.” Erwin remarked.

“That’s it!” her teammates said eagerly.

Miho, Anzu, and Erwin, their heads sticking out of their respective tanks, stared for a moment, and Faber returned that gaze from his scarred and eyepatched face. Faber, quick and decisive, shouted for all to hear, “[Feuer!]” The 88mm KwK 43 gun boomed and the shell flew out and hit the Stug in the side.

“Oryou, reverse and reposition!”

“Roger that!” Oryou put the Stug III into reverse.

“Alright, we should have time until they load the next shell-” *BOOM* another shell flew from the barrel not even a second after the first. This shot hit the Stug again, this time head on. “Damn it!” The white flag popped out of the Stug.

The Konigstiger’s turret turned to face straight forwards, and fired another shot, but Mako was already slamming down the gas. “What the heck!?” Momo screamed. “That thing fires so fast!” Anzu, in the gunners seat of the Hetzer, fired a clear shot into the Tiger II’s flank. With a loud clang, a plate of metal was torn off. “F-Fire! Hurry!” Momo squealed. It was too late. The Tiger II turned around, and the Student Council watched in terror as the black hole in the barrel of the Tiger II lit up, and a shell threw them all backwards. The familiar sound of the white flag popping up met their ears. “Damn it! We’re out!”

“Calm down, Momo-chan.”

“Don’t call me that!”

The Konigstiger immediately turned its attention back to the Panzer IV, which halted. Miho gulped. “It’s become a one on one duel. Mako, don’t stop moving, Eisenherz’s Tiger II is firing very fast, and we can’t afford to rely on the Schurzen. Hana, when the Tiger II was turned around, did you see that box on the back of the turret?” Hana nodded, and Yukari suddenly realized it.

“That must mean-!”

“Hm. The Tiger II has an autoloader. Mako, when it’s fire rate slows down, at my word, get us around to the back as fast as you can. Hana, in the meantime, keep it occupied.”

Faber, his body sitting out of the Tiger II, declared aloud, “Let’s end this…[Panzer, vor!]” The Tiger II put on a burst of speed, and Mako hit the gas as well. Another shot flew from the Tiger’s barrel, missing the Panzer IV and creating a large hole in the ground.

“That’s his 4th shot.” Hana fired a shot, which ricocheted off the turret.

A 5th shot. A 6th shot. 7th. 8th. Then, the gun fell quiet. “Mako, now!” The Panzer IV sped up, Hana fired a shot that killed one of the Konigstiger’s tracks, and just as Faber’s loader pushed in a 9th shot manually, and the turret was turned, the two tanks fired upon each other simultaneously, the Tiger II into the Panzer IVs glacis and the Panzer IV into the Tiger IIs rear. Silence fell. From the hilltop, Otto, Willy, and the other soldiers leaned forwards. The Ooarai girls, gathered with them, did too, their damaged tanks sitting at the base of the hill. Silence...Then...

“It’s a tie!” Miho shouted. Both white flags stood on the respective tanks, signaling the end of their training match. Faber, however, began to laugh.

“W-what’s so funny?” Miho began to look around wildly. “Oh no…”

“What is it, Nishizumi-dono?” Yukari and everyone else wore faces of confusion. An engine like a motorcycle roared, and everyone’s faces went blank with shock, except for Faber, who was still laughing. Sitting directly behind them, in his steel blue, practically untouched Panzer II, was Hans, who wore an unbelievably smug grin.

“We’re not out just yet nyaa~!” Hans gave a strangled yell as the Type 3 Chi-Nu rammed his Panzer II, and his driver kicked the speed into overdrive. Hans dropped into the turret, and managing to turn the turret around, he fired directly into the utterly destroyed mantlet of the Chi-Nu.

“Come on, Momo~!” The driver of the Anteater Team, Momoga, pressed down even harder on the gas. With a great scraping of metal, the Panzer II freed itself from the crushing action of the Chi-Nu before the gun was aligned to fire directly into the Chi-Nu’s turret from the side.

“Oh no…” Nekonya muttered. Hans pulled down the trigger, and unleashed a hail of 20mm AP shells. The rounds pierced and chipped at the Chi-Nu’s turret, creating a sound so loud that the 3 gamers within covered their ears while squealing.

*click* “Oh, ran out of ammo.” Hans finally got himself out of the turret, and saw the white flag sticking out of the Chi Nu. “Well, we won!”


	16. Handy Exposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title implies, some handy exposition occurs.

“I still can’t believe they won just like that!” Nekonya was heard saying two days later.

“Nekonya-san, when are you going to stop complaining?” Momoga muttered, exasperated at her captains complaining.

“Oh come on! It’s like when you get taken out in a tank game and you haven’t even left your spawn!”

“We can hear you y’know?” Otto piped up as he finished with something. “Anyways, technically it was your girls’ fault for forgetting about Hans.” He leaned back down over the M3 Lee, holding up a tube like device over where the 88mm shell had pierced the hull and leaving it twisted and mangled. Placing a piece of steel over the device’s open end, he pressed it against the hole in the M3, and pulled down on it’s trigger. A few seconds later, he pulled it back and the hole was perfectly welded shut with the bar of steel having a sizable hold in it. He took out the plate and threw it into a bucket, where dozens of plates with holes lay discarded. To Otto’s right, Eric, Hoshino, and Clemens were at work fixing the twisted mantlet of the Chi-Nu.

“Hey are you sure you don’t wanna take a break? We’ve been fixing this for a while now.” Hoshino asked. She hammered a bolt back into the Type 3’s mantlet plate.

“It’s alright. We’ve had to fix battleships before, and those things, oh boy...It took forever just to fix one turret. A tank like this should be easy.” Working alongside the Ooarai mechanics were a few of the Germans, along with Willy and about 4 of his family, Owen, and a man wearing a beret with a stereotypical French mustache. Willy and his brothers were working on the M3 Lee’s 75mm gun, which had been hit pretty badly on the front, Owen was helping to fix up the Mark IV Landship, and the mustached man was fixing the Char B1 Bis, alongside Hans for some reason. The other Germans worked spread out amongst the other tanks, although to the amusement of the others, they gravitated towards the German tanks.

“I have to agree with Eric here. When we were back in the Kriegsmarine, one of the guns was hit by a shell, and it took almost 5 days just to fix that one. Then we had to deal with all the smaller guns. So far, it’s only taken 2 days to tow your tanks back here, do some light fixing, then today, after we’ve gotten all the replacement parts and proper gear.”

Hoshino sighed as she put the final bolt into the mantlet. “By the way, how’re your guys’ tanks doing?” She tipped her head outside the garage doors, and sitting out in the open were the 2 Panthers, 2 Tigers, and Faber’s Konigstiger. “The engine on one of the Tigers burst into flames, didn’t it?”

Lenanard poked his head up from fixing the Stug III. “Well at least we didn’t get burnt alive, eh? Anyways, we’re pretty familiar with our own tanks, and since we made all those agreements, we’re working on your tanks first. Either that or we’re being courteous.”

“Huh, well thanks either way! On that note, what’s the worst thing you guys have seen happen to a tank?” All the soldiers immediately stiffened. “Or don’t answer, if you want...heh…”

“Well…” Willy twisted a gear on the 75mm gun of the M3. “The first time I commanded a tank, I was ordinary infantry, GIs. We were assaulting this German bunker system hidden in the woods, and they had a crap ton of Anti-Tank guns, and we only had a few Shermans as support. Pretty suicidal to send us in aye?” The others nodded. The crews of the tanks currently being repaired, sat around in the hanger, watching, so they nodded too. “So the lead captain of the, about 5-7 Shermans, he was this guy who always complained about visibility in the turret, so he’d stick his head out of the cupola, and the idiot decided to stick out his torso and shoulders too. Big ass mistake, next moment while we’re under fire, he gets sniped out of the cupola.”

“Yikes…” Saori muttered.

“Oh, and I’m not saying he was shot by a bullet, his entire upper half was blown off by a German shell. Head, shoulders, and torso, now it’s all red paste somewhere.”

“Are you sure you should be telling them that story? Well, it’s already too late but still, the story is pretty gruesome.” Owen snapped the tracks of the Mark IV back together.

“Ah be quiet, when you weren’t commanding tanks you were dropping Germans from hundreds of meters away like an alligator killing a deer. That is to say very easily.”

“Shut up chav.”

“Thought you’d call us posh boys honestly.” one of Willy’s siblings muttered, before the 3 went back to working silently.

“Geez, that was gruesome…” a somewhat shaken Saori mumbled to her teammates.

“On that note, Lennard told me to ask Hans about dead crews or something.” Everyone stared at Erwin. “What? It slipped out, I asked Lennard if he’s seen people get...nevermind.”

“I heard you, [Mädchen.]” Hans took a break from repairing the Char B1 Bis, wiped his hands on his pants, and sat down atop the turret. “Might as well tell you all since we’ll be stuck here until ‘it’,” Hans jerked towards the covered Wundermotor. “Has the energy to bring us home again, so...During the invasion of France, I commanded a Panzer II C, a normal once, and one day, we ran into a French Char B1. We couldn’t damage it with our guns, and while I was sitting out of the cupola to look around for any French forces, a 75mm shell hit my Panzer head on. To this day I still wonder how I wasn’t killed. My crewmen weren’t so lucky, unfortunately.” The girls went wide eyed at the story, but the Mallard Team the most. “The worst part was, everyone else thought I had died, but I only got hit in the legs, and fortunately, I didn’t lose them. Still, they thought I died, so I had to sit in a field for 3 days, by myself and my terribly bandaged legs, fending off French soldiers that got close to me.”

“So wait, why are you repairing our tank?” Sodoko asked with a hint of suspicion.

“Hm? Oh, after some scouts from the 7th Panzer Division found me, I had to be hospitalized in France because there weren’t any trains or vehicles willing to take me to a German hospital. After we captured Paris, I spent a lot of time studying French tanks while in the hospital, especially the Char B1 Bis.” Hans looked at the looks of both shock and wonder on the girls’ faces, and said in a satirical tone, “Welp, that was my backstory, anybody wanna have a go?” Silence. “I expected as much.”

“Well…” Otto put a finger to his chin, and everybody twisted around. The Ooarai girls had faces of excitement and anticipation. “I might as well. Everyone’s probably already told you about me, but I’m from a long family of mechanics and tinkerers, hence the family name being Bastler. The first time I made something for war, the Wehrmatcht commissioned me to make a design for an air tight tank chamber that would protect the crewmen inside from being killed by shells and so tanks could ford water easier. I think…” Otto pointed to Satoko. “You’ve seen it, right? It’s inside the tanks.” The girl nodded eagerly. “The only problem with it was that it was very expensive to make, so it was reserved for specialist tank units, and in this case, the tanks that we use. Then I was approached by the Luftwaffe to make a zeppelin akin to a flying fortress. So I designed the [Konig der Lufte.] Then I was approached by the Kreigsmarine, and I redesigned the Bismarck to dive underwater. Eric, Clemons, Ralph, did you tell them about it?”

The 3 respective sailors jumped. Ralph was working on the Mark IV’s interior parts, and yet he heard Otto. Eric stuttered, “[N-nein, we didn’t.]”

“Really? I thought you wore it on your chests like badges that you were senior officers on the Bismarck, in charge of the 380mm guns?”

“Well we don’t.”

While the two Germans spoke, the entirety of the Shark Team was sitting like stone faced Buddhas. Ogin muttered in a hollow voice, “I thought they were just normal swabbies…senior officers..and on the Bismarck of all ships...”

Murakami and Rum determinedly said together, “We’ve gotta ask 'em later.”

“Anyways, how did the diving work out?”

“It worked out great, we weren’t sunk by all those British forces. Heh, I still remember seeing those captured tapes from British ships when we resurfaced a week later.”

“That’s good.” Otto turned his attention back to his own story. “So I worked on a lot of things. I worked on some more projects, then I was pulled to work on the R-”

“ **Don’t.** ” Faber stood near the garage door, apparently finished fixing his Konigstiger.

“I-I meant...I fixed German tank production errors and simplified things, yeah. I also did something that was very vital to a certain person’s life, but uh, that’s classified.” Yukari giggled, and Miho the Student Council raised their eyebrows. “Anyways I’m done.” And with that, Otto went straight back to work. The next several minutes were filled with silence that was only filled by the sounds of tools and mechanical issues being resolved.

“You know...I realize we’ve never sat down and talked properly.” Faber said in a low voice. Standing next to the Anglerfish and Rabbit Teams, they realized that Faber was quite tall. Not too much taller than his comrades, but at least taller than six feet.

“Oh yeah, your right…” Miho racked her head for something to talk about. “Hm, I’ve got something: What do you think of Sensha-do?”

Faber gave it a bit of thought, “Hmmm...I guess they’ll let anyone drive a tank these days.” Faber glanced at the Rabbit Team, who were all excitedly talking about...something. “Still! The concept of this sport does remind me of something unfortunate back home.”

“Really? What is it?”

“Well...it keeps making me think of the Hitler Youth, who were trained to fight Allied soldiers. I mean, I’m not saying it’s anything like that, it’s just the concept of having children like you learn how to operate and fight in tanks, do you get what I mean?”

“Hm, yeah. Y’know, my family is famous for Sensha-do.”

“Really? You didn’t mention that before.”

Miho nodded eagerly. “I have an older sister named Maho, she’s the Sensha-do Commander at the school Kuromorimine. It’s very German themed.”

“I see. Well that would certainly explain why you spoke German when we first met, [liebchen.]” Miho blushed at the endearing nickname and Yukari scowled.

“By the way, do you and your men use a P.1000-”

“Akiyama. Just drop it.” Faber interrupted.

“But-”

“Please. Stop, it’ll do us all better that you not find out.”

“Arrrgh!” Miho and Hana giggled at Yukari’s enthusiasm. “I  will find out if it’s a Landkreuzer Ratte if it’s the last thing I do!”

“Ha, sure you will. Me and my men, we’re very good at setting traps. Better do well not to trip them.”

Across the hanger, sitting with her teammates and fellow history buffs, Erwin asked once more, “Should I go talk to Eisenherz?”

Her teammates looked at each other and chuckled to themselves. Caesar took the lead. “Sure, go ahead! If I met Julius Caesar, I’d be all over him! Besides, you love Erwin Rommel right? If Eisenherz-san knew him as a friend, take the dive! Just like a good Roman general would say, ‘carpe diem!’”

“Alright…” Erwin hopped off her wooden crate, and walked towards where Faber and her comrades were having a good talk. “Hey uh, you knew Erwin Rommel right?” she asked the general.

“You’re that [frau] who knows all about him, right?” Erwin nodded, much happier since Faber remembered her. “Indeed, I knew him as a comrade in arms and as a close friend. He would always tell me to be quick and decisive when in battle, and as he put it, ‘The enemy won’t be sitting about all day, awaiting your moves. You must strike quickly, and seize the chance. Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains will save both.’ I’m guessing you already know a quote of him saying that?”

“Of course!”

Faber chuckled at Erwin’s dedication. “Yes, it’s a shame he met his end the way he did. He told me that he despised the Nazi ideology of purging Jews. I wish I could’ve talked to him again, but he was in the Afrikakorps, and I was stuck in Stalingrad, before…”

“Before what, mister Eisenherz?”

Faber shook his head. “Nothing. After I returned from Stalingrad, I was introduced to my men and we were deployed as an elite Panzer unit. I greatly admire Rommel’s commanding ability. I actually tend to mimic him from time to time.”

“I know, right?” Erwin and Faber continued to talk about Rommel, until Erwin brought something up. “About plans, what was your plan to take us out during our match together?”

“My strategy?” The girls perked up, and Faber laughed to himself at how eager they seemed to hear his plan. “Alright. My first plan was for Hans to disable your movement, and while you were preoccupied with him, have the others get into a position where they could pick you off once you were unable to move your tanks. However, that failed, so I had a backup strategy. I had the remaining Panthers and Tiger split up and retreat backwards to where I was hiding, and once they were lost from your sight, I would engage you for as long as possible. While that would happen, the others would loop all the way around and strike your forces in the rear while they were preoccupied with me. However, that failed too, so I had to come out of hiding.” Miho and some of the other commanders smiled in accomplishment. “However! That was the final part of my plan. I predicted that we would all be taken out, but not without thinning your own forces, so all the while, I had Hans evade you all completely, from combat and from sight. It meant that even if you took me out, you would’ve lost your best fighters, which would’ve made it easy for Hans to finish the match. This match of ours was a war of attrition, and Hans was perfect for this purpose. Good job to us, and you all.”

“Nice plan Faber. It sounds very convoluted don’t it?” Willy chuckled.

“Well, at least it’s better than what you and your men do, from what I’ve heard in reports.”

“Ahhh, whatever it works.” Willy’s men laughed at their commander’s response. “Hey, Nishizumi! You said that there’s a German themed school in this world, what’re the other schools like? Is there an American one?”

Yukari answered for Miho. “There is! Saunders Girls High School, the students are stereotypically American(even though we’re all Japanese)and they use only American tanks. Well unless you count the Sherman Firefly, which is a British conversion for the QF17 Pounder, and on that note, there’s also a British themed school, Saint Gloriana Girls High School. They’re always composed and they drink tea all the time, even in the middle of battle!”

“Well sounds just like us Bri’ish back home then! Ha!” Several people in the hanger laughed at the joke. “What other schools are there?”

“Well, there’s the Russian-Soviet themed Pravda Girls High School, lead by their leader Katyusha, there’s Kuromorimine, which Nishizumi-dono already explained, is German themed, Chi-Ha-Tan, which is themed off of WW2 Japan, Jatkosota, the Finnish themed school, and interestingly there’s two French themed schools. BC Freedom and Maginot Academy.”

“Are they seperate, or together?” the beret wearing man asked with a pointed finger.

“Their separate schools, with different doctrines. Also, who’re you? I’ve never seen you before.”

Owen began working on the front plate of the Mark IV. “He’s Jean, a Frenchman we picked up when us, Green Day, advanced into Paris ahead of the main forces. One of my countrymen was hit by a shell that pierced the fighting compartment, which usually never happens with the design of our tanks. Anyways, we had to get someone to replace him, and Jean, a French rebel during the German occupation, volunteered to replace him.”

“[Oui.] It’d be nice to speak to people who know French again.” Jean said.

“I speak French.” Hans wiped his hands on his pants again.

“Eh, I’d rather not. Before we were zapped here, we were trying to kill each other, [non?]”

“Forget about it. We’ll be here for a long time anyways. Might as well enjoy it then.”

“Alrighty then.” However, unbeknownst to them all, a helicopter was touching down on the Ooarai school carrier, and out jumped three girls wearing the Ooarai uniform. One of them chewed their bubblegum before blowing a bubble. The other adjusted a piece of listening gear they had brought with them. And the last pointed her finger, and with gusto, Kay commanded,

“Alright, Alisa, Naomi! Let’s go!”


	17. Three American Tankers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kay, Alisa, and Naomi get to do some spywork!

As the three girls from Saunders High walked down the street towards Ooarai, Alisa kept glancing around nervously. “Kay,” she said in a whisper. “Are you sure this is a good idea? They might recognize us.”

“It’ll be alright, we’re here for a bit of reconnaissance, nothing more.”

“Yeah, but this is about, ‘them’, this is a lot more serious than just reconnaissance!”

“Shhhh.” Naomi placed a finger on Alisa’s mouth before she could end up shouting. “As long as we don’t get seen, they won’t know about what we’re doing now, won’t they?”

“Exactly!” Kay turned the corner, and Ooarai came into view. “Alright, we’re at Ooarai. All we gotta do now is get around to where they keep their tanks, we’re checking there first.”

As the three girls were about half-way to the Ooarai tank hanger, a voice cut out. “Hey!” The girl pulled the three around, and Sodoko demanded, “No chewing gum during school hours! Spit it out!”

“Alright.” and Naomi spat out her gum into a nearby trash can with pinpoint accuracy.

“Well, I have to check the school grounds for rule breakers, so good day!” Sodoko walked off, allowing Alisa and Kay one massive sigh each.

“Your right, Alisa, let’s not get spotted.” A few more minutes of walking, and they were at their destination. Alisa pulled out her listening device, and pulled something that resembled a piece of tape out from it. The 3 looked around the wall, and saw the Tigers, Panthers, King Tiger II, and several of Faber’s men sitting around with Willy and the others who were fixing the tanks for Ooarai, talking with the girls from Ooarai. Faber himself was nowhere to be seen. Alisa crumbled up the tape, and handed it over to Naomi, who tossed it over to the group, where it landed on the ground unnoticed. Flicking a switch and adjusting a few knobs, voices began to be recorded to the three spies.

“Thank God, we’re almost done with the last of your tanks.” Willy took a swig of juice from a bottle.

“Hm” Miho looked around the group, and at Faber, who had left the hangar. “It was fun, having that match with you guys. Your tactics were great too!”

“Hah, thanks. So what were we talking about? Those other schools?”

“Yeah we were, Faber. Me and my siblings were speculating what kind of tanks that Saunders school would have. According to Nishizumi, regulations for this big anniversary thing they have upcoming will be different, so who knows what kind of tanks they’ll have? Anyways, Yukari said that they have a crap ton of Shermans, which I’m not surprised about. It’s a fine tank.”

“A fine tank indeed.” Alisa muttered to herself.”

“Anyways, if I remember correctly, the M10 TD is pretty powerful, it’s got a gun that can punch through enemy tanks pretty well. Too bad it’s armor is horrific. Besides that, maybe some M26 Pershings? Who knows, they might also have a Super Pershing.”

“A Super Pershing? I’ve gotta write that down.” And Kay did. Before long, the three Saunders girls moved on and into the forest. “Well, here we are, their place of hiding! Man it feels like I’m in a Hollywood Sci-fi or something!”

“Not sure if you should put it like that, the last thing I’d want is a jerry filling us with lead. Ah screw it, let’s hurry up and get this over with.” The 3 girls, still wearing the Ooarai uniform, stumbled into the forest, walking down the main path until they found two openings in the thick underbrush that was cleaved open. Kay said eagerly to go left, and after some pushing through, they found themselves in a clearing with eight tanks. Eight, very large tanks. “Wh-what the heck are these!?” Alisa moved forwards to the tanks, and she saw a piece of stamped metal on the side that read, “UHLS”.

“I’ve never seen tanks like these.” Naomi took a step and stopped. Standing on the grass were shells of various calibers, and Naomi almost knocked them over. “A lot of shells too.” Kay herself looked upon the tanks in wonder. They were very large, and all of them were multi-turreted. The turrets were placed in a line up configuration, just like the guns on a battleship. About 4 of them seemed to be the same model or variant, the rest being completely different from the rest. These tanks had 5 turrets, and while Kay couldn’t guess the caliber of two of the guns, she recognized that the other two were 76mm guns, as the accompanying shells lay piled up everywhere. In the center, raised up to be above the rest, was the largest gun.

Alisa looked at the stamping again. “‘UHLS, Ultra-Heavy-Landship.’ Considering those guys are from some other time, I’m guessing these are some tanks that only exist there. Jeez, imagine if we had to fight these things.” As Alisa stood back to get a better view of the tanks, she felt something cold bump against her leg before a loud clattering began. Tank shells began to fall down their piles and against the chassis of the UHLS tanks, snowballing into a loud clanging. “C-crap!” Kay, Naomi, and Alisa all scrambled out of the bushes and into yet another opening. Sitting here was a circle of logs and in the middle, a pit for a fire.

Kay grabbed Alisa and began to aggressively rub her head. “So clumsy! What if we get seen?”

“Agh, I’m sorry!” Alisa whimpered.

“Anyways, let’s keep looking, shall we?”

Naomi nodded. “Yeah, lets-” the 3 girls froze at who had said that. Quivering in excitement, Yukari Akiyama recited, “Sgt. Oddball, 6th Armored Division reporting for duty!”

“W-what the heck are you doing here?” Alisa said stupidly.

“Checking out their tanks of course! Man did you see those ‘UHLS’ tanks? Sure are weird! Most multi-turreted tanks didn’t work out very well, but from what I’ve seen of those, they’re packing a lot of firepower!”

“Anyways, can you pretend we’re not here?” Naomi put a new piece of gum into her mouth and began to chew. “Actually, better yet can you tell us about these soldiers? We only caught the bits about time travel.”

Yukari raised an eyebrow before she put on a smug grin. Alisa panicked. “No, please!” she began to wave her arms to cover Yukari’s mouth but the latter giggled.

“Ah, I’m too busy looking for something to report on you guys, so later!” Without another word, Yukari bounded off into the woods.

Kay laughed. “Well, nice to see Sgt. Oddball again! Come on, let’s keep looking!”

“Fraid’ not.” and the 3 girls turned to stone at the sound of a gun being charged. Kay turned around as slow as a turtle. It was a man wearing an olive green American tanker jacket, with metal pilot’s goggles held around his neck. In both arms he held a Thompson SMG, aimed right at the 3.

“I told you this was a bad idea Kay.”

“Alisa, shush.” Kay said as she, Alisa, and Naomi were now all tied together, sitting on the ground. Standing around them was the man who caught them and another 2, who were also wearing olive green tanker jackets. 

The one with the pilot goggles handed his Thompson to one of the others, and left, muttering, “I’m fetching Willy. Keep an eye on these broads, will ya?”

“Alright Nathan. I’ll keep an eye out.” As soon as Nathan was out of earshot, the sibling began his interrogation. “Alright, what’re three girls like you doing here?”

“Nothing.” Kay felt Alisa and Naomi struggle with their bondage.

“Yeah right, we heard twin tails over there knockin’ over the 105mm shells from a mile away.”

The other spoke up, revealing a ragged and high voice. “Don’t bother lyin’ missy, Nathan’s gone to get our cousin Willy, and that Nishizumi girl can confirm if you're from Ooarai or not.” They both had a Southern country accent.

“W-we got lost…” Alisa muttered.

“Pfft, yeah right. We’ve heard that excuse from every kid who tries to sneak onto our families property, no one just gets ‘lost’ and finds 8 ultra-heavy tanks in the woods. Aubrey, what do you think?”

Aubrey pulled the bolt of the Thompson, ejecting a bullet, which he caught. “No they're definitely snoopin’. More importantly, what to do with ‘em?”

“Well we can’t shoot em’, that’s for sure.”

“Well that else? Keep ‘em tied up until they can go back to where they came?”

“Don’t know. Let’s just wait for Willy to get here. Might as well sing or something in the meantime.”

“Wanna sing ‘Souther Soldier?’ We never do when Willy’s about.”

“Alrighty.” It was then that Naomi, Kay and Alisa saw that this whole time, they’ve been carrying instruments on their backs, a banjo and a fiddle.

Soon they began to sing. “I’ll place my knapsack on my back, my rifle on my shoulder! I’ll march away to the firing line, and kill that yankee soldier...I’ll bid farewell to my wife and child, farewell to my aging mother! I’ll go and join in the bloody strife, till’ this crude war is over. And if our Southern cause is lost, the Southern rights denied us! We’ll be ground beneath the tyrant’s heels, for our demands of justice! We’ll be ground beneath the tyrant’s heels, for our demands of justice.”

Alisa began to quiver. “Oh god, they’re gonna kill us, aren’t they!?”

“I don’t think they’d just shoot us, Alisa. Just stay calm for now, we'll get out of this.” Naomi murmured.  _ Those two are distracted singing, but I don’t think running would get us anywhere. _ “Kay, do you have any plans?”

“Nope, I don’t have any. If Miho sees us, knowing her she’ll let us go.”

The two brothers finished their song, and the bearded face of Willy Nathans pushed through the foliage. “Alright what’ve we got here? Aubrey? Daniel?”

Daniel jeered in his high voice, “Yeah we caught these girls sneakin’ around, and they know about us. The krauts too! What do we do with them?”

Willy put his finger and thumb to his beard and began to stroke it. He looked up to the sky, and down to the earth. “Oy, Nishizumi! Do you recognize these gals?” A mixture of relief and foreboding filled Kay. Miho stepped out from behind the American and stared at the three. “And please be honest, we don’t need our existence leaked and everything falling apart.”

Miho gulped. She began to feel nervous, and the situation itself wasn’t helping.  _ If I lie, then Naomi, Kay, and Alisa can go free. But if I don’t be honest, the trust Willy and Faber put in me won’t be real. _ And it really didn’t help that Aubrey was holding a gun with live rounds, Daniel and Nathan were beginning to put their hands into their pockets, where Miho realized they kept pistol holsters.

“Sorry.” Kay, Alisa, and Naomi felt their hope die. “They’re just students here at Ooarai, they must’ve gotten lost. The Student Council and I will deal with them.”

Willy raised an eyebrow, but he didn’t question her choice. “Alright, I trust you then. Take em’ away then.”

Miho walked over to the 3 Saunders students and stood them up, undoing their bondage. “We’ll talk soon.” she whispered to Kay, who nodded. As the 4 girls wearing the Ooarai uniform walked out of the forest, Miho glanced back at Willy, and saw him wink with a flashed grin that screamed rebellion.

Finally clear of the forest, Miho began to lead them towards the Ooarai school itself. “Please don’t rat us out!” Alisa squealed.

Miho gave her a soft smile. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell those soldiers about who you are. Just follow me. Come on!” The girls from Saunders followed, not wanting to be spotted by anyone else, and in no time they were in front of the wooden double doors of the Student Council’s office. Miho pushed the doors open, and with a wave of her hand, Alisa followed with her. Naomi and Kay had no problems going to see the Student Council of Oorai.

“Kay-san!? What’re you all doing here? And why are you wearing our uniforms?” Momo said dangerously, her voice rising.

Miho heard the doors click shut and breathed deeply. “They were caught in the forest by the soldiers, and Willy’s brothers and cousins are saying they were spying on them. However I told Willy that they were from Ooarai, so you can deal with them.” Miho stepped aside, and Kay walked forwards, a determined aura around her.

“I’m deeply sorry for spying!” Kay bowed in apology, followed by Naomi and Alisa. “We were curious as to what was going on at Ooarai when that incident happened about two weeks ago, so we decided to return and investigate.”

Anzu ate a chip and put a finger on her chin, spinning around absentmindedly in her large office chair. “How long have you known about this, Kay-san?”

Kay raised her head. “Me, Naomi, and Alisa, were delivering a tank when we passed by your ship. That was when that crazy lightning strike happened and our helicopter went haywire for a moment. After we got back to Saunders, we decided to return and investigate, and we saw you guys talking with those Americans. They sang the Southern Marching song ‘Dixie’ didn’t they?”

“They did.” Miho confirmed.

“And then today, we decided to come back and check around more. The rest should be easy to fill in.” Kay finished her summary, and observed the expressions of the Student Council. Anzu had her same, scheming yet carefree look, Yuzu looked worried, but somewhat relieved about the cleared up misunderstandings, and Momo looked anxious as ever. “But...There’s one more thing.”

“W-what is it?”

“...Nevermind, just, we’re sorry about snooping. I promise to not tell.” As the 3 left the office, Kay was deep in thought.  _ Sorry guys. I sorta told... _


	18. Quiet before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone is left to process things after the Saunders girls leave.

Kay, Naomi, and Alisa had left quietly to let the Student Council and Ooarai process what had happened, and the sound of a helicopter flying away told them that the 3 Saunders commanders had left. “Well, that was a close bullet to say the least.” Momo said in relief. “Still, the Anniversary Festival is in 2 days, the soldiers need to get hidden before someone walks in on them.”

“Your right, Momo-chan. I’ll go down and warn them then.” Before anyone could bother her anymore, Yuzu left the office.

“Yuzu wait!” Momo followed Yuzu with haste, determined to help. Now it was only Anzu and Miho left in the office.

Miho took several deep breaths before she spoke again. “What’re we going to do? We have to hide them, but students from the other schools will be all over…”

Anzu cleared her throat loudly and ate another chip. “Don’t worry about that, Nishizumi-chan. Me and the rest of the council will deal with it, for now, you deal with writing up strategies before the Festival begins. That way you can show the rest of Japan that Ooarai is unbeatable!”

Miho smiled. “Thank you, President. I’ll get working on that!” Miho pushed her way out the door and moved at a brisk pace back down to the hanger, and when she got back, she found Yuzu, Momo, the rest of the teams, along with Faber and Willy standing about.

Momo was talking with the two leaders. “Alright, as we’ve said before, we’ll be having students from the other schools coming in and off of this school ship as they please, and because of how the festival is working, there’s also going to be Sensha-do battles every few days.”

“Roger that.”

“”[Ja Mädchen.]”

“What I, we, the Student Council, need you to do is hide yourselves as best as possible. Conceal everything, and I mean everything, no one else can know about your existence here at Ooarai, alright? Those girls today were a pretty close call!”

“On that note, those girls weren’t from this school, am I wrong? I mean, I could sorta tell when Nishizumi said that they were from Ooarai when we caught them snoopin’.”

“Yeah, they weren’t.” Miho said, now caught up to the 3. “They were the commanders of the Sensha-do team from Saunders High School. But don’t worry, Kay-she was the blonde one-said they wouldn’t tell.”

“Are you sure? How do you know she wasn’t lyin’ to you?”

“I trust Kay. She may come off as overtly playful but she has a great sense of sportsmanship, so she wouldn’t tell something like this so freely.”

That was enough for Faber and Willy. “Alright then.” the former said.

“On that note, can you please tell us what your main tank is, Faber? It won’t do well to keep it hidden.”

“Hmmmm…” Faber looked at Yukari, who was listening with glistening eyes. “I’m afraid not, but when it comes to keeping it hidden, well...Hahaha, I’m impressed none of you have found it, and it’s the size of a battleship! There, that’s your clue as to what it is, but I’m still not going to confirm it myself.”

“As for us,” Willy gave them a thumbs up with a smile. “We’ll make sure no one finds our UHLS tanks! Or us. And don’t worry, I’ll reign in my rowdy as hell family, and don’t worry, we’re all from Florida after all.” Willy laughed to himself, and a few others laughed with him.

Faber nodded. “I’ll make sure my men don’t do anything crazy as well. We’ll stay hidden,” Faber paused, before saying lightly, “Unless someone finds us.”

Miho happily nodded. “Thank you all. Tell your men I said that to them, please.”

“With pleasure, [liebchen.]” Faber tipped his officers cap, and Willy gave a gentleman's bow. Without another word, the two walked away, their backs followed by dozens of eyes.

“Why do you keep calling her that Faber?” Willy poked.

“Well, the exact reason the name implies. She’s grown on me.”

“I see. Can’t blame you, she’s got charisma.”

“Indeed she does, Willy.”


	19. The Great Sensha-do Anniversary Festival begins:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins.

Miho and the rest of the team gathered as massive shapes appeared on the horizon. Standing on the control tower of the school ship, the shapes came into form, and soon Ooarai was nearly trumped in size by the various other ships. Well, except for a few. The Student Council watched as bridges made of thick steel reinforced by all manners of materials and techniques were lowered and connected to various areas of Ooarai. Spread out over an incredible distance were the ships _Akagi_ , belonging to Chi-Ha-Tan Academy, _Aquila_ , belonging to Anzio High School, _HMS Ark Royal_ , the ship for St. Glorianas Girls College, _Bearn,_ the ship of BC Freedom, _USS George Washington,_ one of the biggest and belonging to Saunders University High, the _Graf Zeppelin,_ owned and run by Kuromorimine Girls Academy, _Invincible,_ belonging to Koala Forest High School, _Kiev,_ probably the largest, belonging to Pravda Girls High School, and finally, the _Surcouf_ , used by Maginot Girls’ Academy. Connecting all these ships were the same steel bridges.

All the girls of Ooarai were buzzing with excitement. The prospect of seeing students from other schools so freely was riling up their adrenaline and excitement to the point of bursting. Atop the ship's tower, the Ooarai sensha-do team were buzzing as well.

“Maybe there’ll be boys?”

“But Saori, you know they're all Girls schools too, right?”

“Oh come on!” Saori said in an exhausted tone.

“Oh, Anzio’s close by! Maybe I can see…” but Caesar froze at the faces her teammates were making. “We’re just childhood friends, remember!?”

Erwin smiled cockily. “Yeah sure, remember when those girls from Anzio snuck over? We,” Erwin gestured proudly to Oryou and Saemonza, “Saw you being all lovey dovey with her, don’t deny it!”

“Et tu!?” Caesar screamed exasperated.

Miho looked out to the Graf Zeppelin, excitement etched into her face. “I can see Onee-chan again, and the others too! I wonder how Erika and Koume have been doing.”

Momo looked in the direction of the Anzio carrier. “Oh boy, I’ve gotta deal with them for a month. And with the Momochovy thing and all...”

“Eh don’t worry about it. The thing we should really worry about is Jatkosota stealing everything, I hear they nab anything that isn’t bolted down tightly enough.” Anzu chomped on another chip, like she always does.

Meanwhile…

On the Aquila, the green haired twin tail wearing girl Anchovy stood proudly with her signature jacket over her shoulders and horse crop in hand. “We’ll show the other schools that we can overcome any mountain! Isn’t that right!?”

“Duce! Duce! Duce!” the girls of Anzio chanted. Anchovy looked on with pride, the blonde Carpaccio and black-haired Pepperoni standing to her sides, chanting as well.

Aboard the Graf Zeppelin, standing tall and formal was the almighty leader of the Kuromorimine Sensha-do Team, Maho Nishizumi. Standing alongside her was the silver haired Erika Itsumi and similarly brown haired Koume Akaboshi.

“Well, Commander, we should prepare for challengers, shouldn’t we?” Erika turned around, glancing at their massive armament of German tanks.

Koume looked towards the Ooarai ship, the Zuikaku. “I hope I can see Miho again…”

“Don’t you think we have more important-”

“Me too, Koume. I wonder how Miho’s been doing?” Maho muttered, to Erika’s shock and jealousy and to Koume’s delight. “Especially considering…”

Erika sighed. “With all due respect, is this about that thing Kay said at that meeting? She was probably just joking around as she always does.”

Drinking tea as she and her comrades always did, aboard the HMS Ark Royal Darjeeling, Assam, Orange Pekoe, and Rosehip watched from a tower, sipping their favorite teas. “Say, everyone.” a clink of a cup against a saucer. “Have you heard this saying? ‘All is fair in love and war.’”

“John Lyly, I believe.” Orange Pekoe responded almost instinctively.

“I couldn’t agree more, desu wa!” Rosehip was vibrating her chair, which was felt by all despite them sitting in separate seats.

Assam sighed. “I do have to agree with Rosehip. We can finally use ‘it’, can’t we?”

“Indeed. I’m glad I’ve come back to St Glorianas for this.” standing instead of sitting, a girl with long blonde hair took a good sip of her tea. Earl Grey tea to be exact.

In an office with high windows, a short girl with short blonde hair jumped onto the back of a much taller girl with long black hair. “Forwards Nonna! The Great Katyusha won’t be late to greet Mihosha!” Aboard the Kiev, Katyusha, Nonna, and Klara walked down the halls to the entrances of their school, Pravda.

“Of course, Katyusha.”

Klara walked alongside Nonna. “[Skazhite, Nonna, chto vy dumayete o tom, chto skazal Kay?] (Tell me, Nonna, what do you think of what Kay said?)”

“[Mne eto kazhetsya shutkoy tovarisch] (It seems to be a joke to me, comrade).” Nonna said in response.

“[Nonna, Klara! I thought I'd told you enough to speak Japanese around me!” Katyusha pouted, eliciting a smile from Nonna and a good chuckle from Klara.

Aboard the Bearn, Marie, the commander of the BC Freedom Sensha-do team, took a bite of her delicious cake. All the while her vice-commanders Oshida and Andou bickered over yet another trivial matter. Sitting in a meeting room with them were the commanders of Maginot as well, who all looked appalled. Asparagus, the elder in this situation, put her fist down. “Be quiet you two!” Andou and Oshida flinched before looking around at their elder. “If we’re to defeat anyone at this tournament, you two have to quit your bickering!”

“S-Sorry…” the two said, hanging their heads in shame. All the while Marie continued to eat cake, bliss on her face.

And all around the gathered ships, the girls of the schools were coming up with their strategies. The only school that wasn’t scheming particularly hard was Saunders. Hopping into her M4 Sherman, Kay and the rest of her team began to roll out. Alisa was sitting in her M4A1(76), and Naomi in her Sherman VC Firefly. “Come on everyone! Let’s go greet Ooarai!” Kay called to her team to tumultuous cheers. _Especially considering the hot water they’ll be in soon!_

Sitting in her Panzer IV, Miho looked out towards the bridges of steel. This was a massive undertaking, and Miho was excited to see her friends again.

“Mihosha!” A familiar voice called out. A T-34/85 drove down one of the bridges, and sitting in the cupola, a helmet upon her head, was the commander of Pravda, Katyusha. Her T-34 was followed by an IS-2 and another T-34/85.

Miho smiled and waved back eagerly. “Hey, Katyusha!”

Katyusha’s T-34 stopped in front of the Panzer IV H, before the commander herself hopped out, Miho following as well. Yukari, Saori, Hana, and Mako jumped out of the Panzer IV too.

“How’s my [Tovarishch] been doing?” Katyusha held out her hand, which Miho shook.

“We’ve been doing great! Did you learn Russian?”

“Hm, not too much. Not that I need it! The great Katyusha doesn’t need to learn Russian to crush her enemies!” From the IS-2 and other T-34 emerged Nonna and Klara respectively, and without another word, Katyusha hopped onto Nonna’s shoulders, just like she’s always done.

“How’ve you been, Miho?” Nonna smiled.

“[dobroye utro.] That means good morning in Russian.” Klara said in both her mother tongue and Japanese. There was a sudden rumbling of tanks, and looking down the road, the group saw the rest of Ooarai’s Sensha-do team approaching. As soon as they stopped, Anzu jumped from the Hetzer 38(T) and shook the hands of the 3 Pravda commanders.

“Heya Katyusha-san, Nonna, Klara. Welcome to Ooarai!” Anzu held out her arms with pride. “Do you know if the other schools are coming to see us?” Anzu went to grab another chip when her hand touched the air. “Eh?” bewildered, she looked around before spotting the culprit, who was sneaking away. “Ah! Is that you, Mika-san?”

Mika turned around, a sweet potato in her mouth. “Hello. How have you all been doing?”

“Great! Also did you steal my chips?”

“Why, the wind brought them to me of course.” Mika said before she zipped off, her teammates Aki and Mikko joining her, their arms full of food.

“H-hey! Where’d you get that stuff!?” Momo almost gave chase, but she was held back by Yuzu.

“Oy! Return those tanks you stole from us you little-!” Katyusha wailed.

“Calm down, Katyusha. We can get them back after we beat them, hm?” Nonna seemed unfazed, while Klara just laughed at her commander’s childishness.

Anzu just laughed it off, although she seemed slightly sour that her beloved bag of dried sweet potatoes was now gone. Nonna gently placed Katyusha on the ground so she could shake Anzu’s hand properly. “Prepare yourselves Ooarai! We’ll crush you!” Katyusha pointed.

“Sure, sure. Oh hey, is that St. Glorianas?” Anzu pointed in turn, and crossing down from another one of the bridges, a Churchill IV and a Crusader Mk III stopped next to the other gathered tanks in turn. The hatch of the Churcill opened and Darjeeling climbed out, graceful as ever.

“How have my dear rivals and friends been?” Darjeeling asked with a sip of her tea. She was followed by Assam, Orange Pekoe, and from her own tank, a very excited Rosehip.

“We’ve been doing great, Darjeeling-san! Thanks for the tea you’ve been sending us as well!” Miho waved. 

“It’s no problem. On the note of tea, may I introduce you to Earl Grey?”

A young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes climbed out of the Churchill, her hair flowing in the wind. “I’ve heard lots about you, Ooarai. Miho Nishizumi, is it?” Earl Grey dropped down onto the ground, shaking Miho’s hand. “And you're the student council president, aren’t you? Anzu Kadotani?”

“Yup! You're the ex-commander of St. Glorianas, aren’t you? Great to meet you, Earl Grey-san!”

Rosehip was absolutely jumping in excitement. “Hey is it true that there’s sol-Mmphhh.” she mumbled, her mouth covered by Assam.

“Don’t bring that up, Rosehip. Kay was probably just joking.” For a brief moment, the girls from Ooarai all looked at each other concerned, but they dismissed it. Probably just some coincidence, right?

“Miho!” a more than familial voice called out. Miho’s face absolutely lit up and without another moment to spare, Miho turned around and hugged her elder sister tight. Maho laughed to herself at Miho’s reaction. “How’s my little sister been?”

“I’ve been doing great, Onee-chan.” Miho said once she pulled herself off. “How about you?”

“Me too. I’ve been dealing with work, but Erika’s been helping me. Erika, come say hello!” Maho called over her shoulder, and the silver haired girl walked forwards and held out her hand.

“H-hello, Miho-san. I hope we can all enjoy the festival together.” The vice-commander stuttered.

 _Is she blushing?_ Miho giggled. “Of course!” Miho greeted Koume with a similar amount of affection.

Nonna looked around at her rivals and friends, and laughed to herself. “Well, we have to go greet any other schools who might see us, come on, Katyusha-sama...Katyusha?”

Nonna turned to Klara, who had the same expression of growing concern a mother has when their young child is lost. “Oh no, Katyusha must have wandered off!”

“Jeez are you her mother or something?” Erika cheekily remarked.

“Ugh, Kay better not have lied to me!” Somehow, in the course of about 10-20 minutes, Katyusha had wandered into the woods from where she and her comrades were gathered. “If she lied to the great Katyusha, I’ll have her sent off to the gulag!” Katyusha walked through the woods, becoming more and more on edge by any sound she heard, which ranged from loud snapping sounds to loud breathing that sounded oddly close.

*slurp*

Katyusha felt joy bubble inside of her. She ran in the direction of the sound and ran straight into something broad and tall. Looking up, she saw the back of someone who wore a black ushanka atop their head, which had short cut black hair. “[Hm?]” the person turned around, revealing it to be a man with a very short, chin only goatee. He wore a tan telogreika, and to Katyusha’s mixture of shock and joy, both bore the iconic sickle and hammer of Soviet Russia. The man drank the rest of whatever it was from his metal tin cup, and placed it down on the log on which he sat.

“What’re you doing here?” he said with curiosity, which relieved Katyusha.

 _Thank goodness, he’s not hostile._ “U-um…” Katyusha suddenly found herself unable to respond.

“Are you lost, [malyshka?]” he held out a calloused and dry hand.

“I-I’m not lost! The great Katyusha wouldn’t get lost in the woods so easily!”

“Is that so? Well, you should go back and find your parents before something happens. They wouldn’t want you to be hurt by a bear, would you?”

Katyusha mumbled something along the lines of, “Nevermind, I am lost.”

The Russian laughed a hearty one. “Alright, I’ll help you find your [mat'].” He stood up, and to Katyusha’s surprise, he kneeled on the ground, holding his hands behind her. “I can carry you if you want to see them better.”

Katyusha stopped for a moment, before she climbed onto his back. He stood tall, and began to walk out of the woods. “Oh, whoops, I should leave this.” he picked up his ushanka and threw it behind him. “Now, we can go. My name is Niklav, [malyshka.]”

“Katyusha-sama! Where’d she walk off to?” Nonna looked around for her beloved commander.

“Nonna, I’m sure Katyusha can handle herself. She’s 18 afterall.” Anzu tried to comfort her. “I mean, she can’t have gone far anyways.”

“Still, something could happen to her. Right, Klara?” The blonde nodded in deep agreement. She did share her concern and love(if overt)for Katyusha after all.

“Klara, Nonna!” the voice of Katyusha shouted out.

Nonna’s face brightened considerably, and she turned, a smile on her face. “Katyusha-” which was replaced with silent disgust and shock. Walking towards the group, Niklav had Katyusha up on his tall, broad shoulders.

“Ah, good. Are you her mother?” Niklav said looking directly at Nonna, then to Klara, causing him to raise an eyebrow in amusement. Everyone else laughed, suppressing their amusement.

“[Da!]” the two girls said nonchalantly and enthusiastically, and everyone’s laughter burst. Even the graceful girls of St. Glorianas laughed.

“[I see. Well, keep an eye out for malyshka Katyusha here, won’t you?]” Niklav said in russian. It was then that the Ooarai girls remembered their predicament upon hearing the very foreign man speak his mother tongue. Miho looked at Niklav and shot him a look, which he fortunately caught, before making an ok sign with his hand.

“That reminds me! Nonna, Klara, what does [malyshka] mean?” Katyusha inquired as she clambered onto Nonna’s shoulders.

Klara had to suppress a laugh. “It means little girl, Katyusha-sama. He’s been calling you small this whole time.” Nonna gave Niklav a death stare, which he laughed at. Katyusha herself didn’t know whether to glare as well, except she thanked him.

“Thanks for helping!”

Niklav turned around, waving his hand. “[Poka, beregi sebya.]”

“Who was that man, Katyusha?”

“I don’t know...He said his name was Niklav, and…” she lowered her voice considerably, so only Nonna and Klara could hear, “I found him drinking in the woods. If what Kay said is right, then he’s one of ‘them’.”

“Really? And I thought she was messing with us all.”

“Anyways, we should get going, we can investigate them ourselves later.” Katyusha sat back up. “Well, the Great Katyusha will be having many visitors, so see you! Later, Mihosha!”

“See you soon!”

Maho turned to her vice commander. “Erika, on that note, I think we should get going as well. Miho, it’s been great to see you. See you tomorrow!”

“Oh, see you later Onee-chan!” Miho called after as the three Kuromorimine girls hopped into a kubelwagen and drove off to and up the steel bridge connecting Ooarai to another ship.

Darjeeling finished off her tea. “Well, Miho, I believe that concludes our visit as well. Don’t forget about the opening ceremony tomorrow! Have a wonderful day.”


	20. The Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the Sensha-do Anniversary Festival was to take place the next day, or today, considering time has skipped forwards. Either way, it was to the Student Council’s and the Ooarai Sensha-do Teams surprise that as the champions of the previous Nationals Tournament, it was to be hosted on the Zuikaku. Momo initially freaked out, like she always does, but Yuzu calmed her. The rest of Ooarai was excited to say the least, and Miho smiled at the prospect of seeing all of her friends, this time all in one large party.

“Sounds like they're having fun, aren’t they?” Willy remarked to his men as he drank a cup of coffee. Black of course.

“Wish we could go there. Bet they got lots of delicious food from around the world.” Jean sipped his coffee, which was much lighter with some sugar and cream they had obtained from the Ooarai girls, who had been giving them and the Germans food, in exchange for all the help and kindness the soldiers showed in return. “Especially French Food. I want to eat my country's cuisine again!”

“I thought you were a chef Jean.”

“[Oui commandant Owen.] However, do we have access to anything I can use to cook? [Non.]” He took a deep sip of his coffee, accompanied by a biscuit. “Well unless you count the wildlife. But hunting them would mean firing our guns, and we all know how loud those are.”

“I did make a suppressor for my Lee Enfield? That’s where we’ve been getting the rabbit and wild boar.”

“[désolé]. Still, is there somewhere I can get a good drink? Or anything of that sort?”

“There’s Donzoko.” the three allied soldiers turned around, and saw Ralph playing with his knife. “I can show you, if you want, Jean.”

“[Cela serait apprécié.] Show the way then!” With a final sip of his coffee, Jean adjusted his beret and followed Ralph, who had begun walking off into the woods.

Willy finished his coffee off as well. “Bet he’ll get shanked or something? That Ralph kid scares me.”

Marie squealed in delight as she put another forkful of cake into her mouth. It was simply divine, the cake was. It was light and fluffy, yet packed with a sweet flavor reminiscent of roses and strawberries, and it simply melted on her tongue. Behind her, Oshida and Andou looked at her with fondness while Asparagus talked to the commander of Maginot, Eclair. “You two have to eat some of this cake. It’s divine!” she said with glee.

“Ah I’m fine, I’ll just get some udon or something,” Andou said in modesty. “Taking the chance to stuff yourself more huh?” Andou smirked as she spotted Oshida taking a large plate with several cakes piled on it.

“H-hey! I’m not-Fine then, I guess I’m not giving you any.” Oshida pouted before taking a big forkful of cake and stuffing it into her mouth.

Andou gaped before gasping. “Agh! Fine, sorry I take back what I said, just give me some please!” With a smile on her face, Oshida handed Andou a plate of chocolate cake, which Andou took a bite of. It was delicious and deeply chocolatey.

Asparagus watched her kouhais from afar. _Nice to see those two not arguing for once_. “Marie, Andou, Oshida! Come here.” The three girls stopped for a moment before walking over to their elder. “I’m thinking of kicking things off by challenging Ooarai. Since we’re combined with Maginot, I say we have a good chance of beating them! How does that sound?” Marie, Andou, and Oshida nodded eagerly at the chance to fight Ooarai and potentially defeat them. “You know, I’m wondering why I’m making all the decisions now. You are the commander, after all, Marie.”

Marie finished her first slice of cake. “Of course, but I figured it’d be easier to let you do the planning. You are our upper-classman after all.”

“I mean...That’s true, but still, you’ve gotta put some work in, Marie. Remember what they said earlier in the opening speeches?”

Marie began to eat another slice of cake. “Sorry I wasn’t paying attention. The cake and food looked too good.”

Asparagus sighed and put a hand to her face. “Of course you didn’t.”

“On the subject of food, someone from Ooarai told me that there’s a bar somewhere in their ship that serves delicious drinks. Andou, Oshida, would you like to come with me?”

“Of course Marie-sama!” the two spoke, simultaneously obedient.

“M-Marie, why are we in such a place like this?” Oshida’s voice quivered as Rum and Flint leered at the French trio.

“Geez and I thought the lower ends of the Bearn were bad. This place is just...yikes.”

Marie smiled despite the predicaments, spooning another bite from her cream soda into her mouth. Earlier, they had someone guide them into the Johannesburg of Ooarai, before Marie sat down at the counter of Donzoko and ordered a cream soda from Cutlass. “It’s not too horrible. The cream soda is delicious!” she proclaimed delightfully. Cutlass gave a small smile at the compliment.

Andou sighed in defeat. Looking around, she saw Murakami and Ogin sitting at the counter to her right, but it was the next person she saw that caused her to raise an eyebrow. Laughing and telling jokes to the two buccaneers was a man wearing a beret, a long, light brown overcoat and most strikingly a french looking mustache. Overall he looked very European, he had a fair face and black hair. “Marie-sama, that man...I don’t think Kay lied to us when she blabbed about there being soldiers in the woods of Ooarai.”

“Hm?”

“That man, he looks very French, and we’re in Japanese Waters, nowhere near Europe except for Russia.”

“He does.” Oshida nodded. “Marie, perhaps we should talk to him? We do learn French at BC Freedom after all.”

Marie scooped up the last of her cream soda. She whispered to her vice captains, “We can listen for now. If he really is one of them, then he will just leave if we expose that we know who he is. Come on.”

With that, the 3 girls stealthily slid over a few seats, now within hearing distance of the man and the two sailors. “So,” Ogin began to ask. “Enough about jokes, from what I’ve heard you guys talking about, you were in the French Resistance?”

“[Oui.]”

 _He speaks French!_ The BC Freedom trio sat listening, taking up drinks themselves.

“My brother was a soldier, and when the Germans took Paris, I used my cooking skills to get close to German officers.”

“So you could poison em’?” Murakami bluntly said.

“No no no, if I did poison them, they would probably shoot me. After all, when someone is poisoned through their food, the first people they investigate are the chefs and cooks. I simply used my position to steal documents from them.”

The Frenchman continued to talk, and all Oshida could remark was, “I’m impressed they're talking about something so sensitive when we’re in here.”

“Alright Jean, what happened when the Americans and British came into France? What’d you and the rest of the freedom fighters do?” Ogin asked the big question.

“Ahh, my favorite story to talk about. We were working closely with Allied Commanders and our Government in exile, and when Allied Soldiers parachuted down into the countryside, they brought with them shipments of weapons, along with plans. A few days after their naval assault on the occupied coastlines, we were to break into surplus weapon stores and use the weapons found there to rally the population and fight off the Germans.”

“Wow, that’s pretty crazy. I’m guessing ya’ did it?”

“[naturellement.] We broke into stores of weapons and there we found thousands and thousands of French weapons, but even better, we found that the Germans had left dozens of tanks untouched from before the beginning of the war. With that, the entire resistance, over 500000 of us strong, armed ourselves with our own countries' rifles and machine guns, we fired up the tanks, and we went out to liberate our country!” he briefly stopped, giggling at the applause from the Shark Team, all of whom were now listening closely.

“So how’d that go?”

“It went well, actually.” Jean put his left hand on his chin, taking a sip of a drink with his right. “A lot of us were French Soldiers, so when we enacted the plan, many of the members of the resistance were wearing French uniforms, which German soldiers would go on to say, ‘it was as if the French army had returned from the dead.’ I myself wore my brother’s uniform. He wasn’t a part of the resistance. Anyways, after we broke into the storehouses, I took command of a Char B1 Bis, and I took along me several SOMUA S35 to go out and deal with the German tanks. Along the way, me and my men sang our countries marching songs, which brought even more people to our side, whom we armed in turn. Our goal was the Eiffel Tower, where the Resistance was to meet up at and fortify for the US and British soldiers moving through France.” Jean took a break from his story to finish his drink.

“Wow.” Marie, Oshida, and Andou said softly. Marie began to drink out the liquid of her cream soda, while Oshida and Andou began to talk about Jean. “Quite the guy huh?”

“Definitely. I wonder how good he’d be with our tanks?”

Jean finished off his second glass. “Alright, where was I? Our first real obstacle was a group of German medium tanks, but they lacked the firepower to take out my Char B1, so we dealt with them rather easily. Along the way, we engaged German soldiers, who tried their best to hold us off, but they couldn’t take us out. Our first major obstacle was starkly different than what we had come across in our march to the Eiffel Tower. A German Tiger.” he paused to listen for any gasps, but there were none, to his disappointing sigh. “Now I couldn’t command the Char B1 to go out into the open, the Tiger would’ve most likely plowed through the front armor, so I had the SOMUAs go around the secret passageways in the streets, and they managed to disable the Tiger while I held it’s attention. We kept going forwards, and using our intricate knowledge of Paris’ streets, we outflanked and destroyed two German Panthers as well. Eventually, all of us, the resistance, regathered and we assaulted the fortified Eiffel Tower from all sides. Afterwards, we had to fortify the tower and defend it ourselves, and that’s when Green Day arrived.”

“You mean that Allied Tank unit your in?”

“[Oui, madame.] We were under attack by a number of German Tigers, when one of Green Day’s UHLS tanks arrived. Willy and his men helped us fight off the Germans, although one of the British members had to be taken out of the war due to injuries from a shell. He didn’t lose any limbs from what I remember, but he was hurt all over. That’s why I’m on Green Day now. To pay back what they did for us, I joined them as one of their tanks’ gunners to replace the one who was injured. And that,” he snapped his fingers dramatically. “Is how I and the French Resistance liberated Paris. All while singing the Chanson de l'Oignon.”

Flint paused in her singing. “Hey, how about singing for us right now, eh?”

“W-what? [Non], I’m not the kind of person to show off too much.”

“What, scared?”

“What!? I’m not scared. Hmph!” he pouted, standing up and clearing his throat to the excitement of everyone in Donzoko. And so he sang:

“J'aime l'oignon frit à l'huile, j'aime l'oignon car il est bon. J'aime l'oignon frit à l'huile, j'aime l'oignon, j'aime l'oignon. Au pas camarades, au pas camarades, au pas, au pas, au pas, au pas camarades, au pas camarades, au pas, au pas, au pas.” He smiled wide to the applause. Then he turned and laid his eyes on the 3 commanders from BC Freedom and froze. The 3 girls had forgotten about their mission to spy on him, and based on the smiles on their faces, quite enjoyed his singing and applauded him as well. “W-when did those 3 come into this establishment?” He said pointing at them, his voice full of nerves.

Before anyone could answer, the door to Donzoko was kicked open(again)and standing in the doorway, clad in his German uniform was Hans. “Jean, you should get back before it’s too late to return. The opening ceremony is-Who’re those three girls?”

“I could ask the same, [monsieur Hans.]”

“Argh!” Hans hit the door frame with his fist. “Doesn’t matter, let’s go before it’s too late!” Hans rushed forwards and in a few long strides, had taken Jean by the arm and dragged him out of Donzoko, the latter waving sadly. Just as they left, Oshida tossed something onto Hans’ arm that stuck.

“...Well that was certainly something. He absorbed us so much in his story, we didn’t notice you lasses walking in here.” Ogin put her pipe back into her mouth, and Murakami ordered a drink. “What’s a lady like you doing down here?”

Marie simply smiled. “For the cream soda of course.”

“[Gottverdammt!] What were you thinking!? You were seen, and based on your reaction they heard you talking about how you liberated France and everything else.”

“Not everything, just the bit with liberating Paris.” Jean blurted and spouted as he was quite forcibly dragged along by the surprisingly strong German. “Anyways, your not faring much better, you are walking out into the open while still wearing your uniform, [monsieur.]”

“[Yeah well don’t make me scold you in French, oh wait I am.]” Hans stopped in an alleyway, where just across the street lay Ooarai. “Alright, we just need to go a bit farther before we’re safe. Stay close Jean.”

“[Oui monsieur.]” Hans began to move out of the alleyway when Jean looked to his right down the street. His eyes widened, seeing two girls in gray uniforms walking down the street right towards them. “[Arrêtez!]” he hissed, grabbing Hans’ arm and yanking him back violently.

“[What!?]”

“Erika, about what Kay said…” Hans and Jean froze, Jean keeping a keen eye out, while Hans slowly crept behind a mountain of boxes. “Do you think it’s true? That there’s soldiers in the woods?”

Erika scoffed. “Kay was probably just playing tricks on us. I mean, come on, soldiers who came to our world and time because of a malfunctioning machine, it’s too absurd. And even then, they would’ve been exposed at this point, there’s too many people to hide them from either.”

“Then again, it is in the woods, and the woods behind Ooarai are very thick, remember that.”

“Of course, [kommandant], but still, I believe that Kay is just pranking us.”

“I guess you're right then. Come on, let’s keep going.” Jean heard the two continue walking, and his breathing froze as the two passed by the alleyway. Several seconds passed, and their steps finally faded.

“Alright, let’s go Hans!” Jean tugged on Hans’ jacket as he broke into a run, Hans shadowing him. *CRUNCH* Hans jolted as the sound of a breaking tile met his ears, but he didn’t stop running, in fact he sped up even more

Maho froze and immediately turned around at the sound of the tiles breaking. “What’s wrong, com-” Erika’s words caught in her throat, as the Commander and Vice-Commander of Kuromorimine witnessed as two men, one wearing a beret and long brown overcoat and the other wearing a dark grey Wehrmacht tankers uniform sprinted across the street, jumping and vaulting over the car barrier before finally crossing over the gated brick wall that separated Ooarai and the rest of the city, both of them taking sharp turns vanishing from sight behind the wall.

“Erika.” Maho said with deep seriousness.

“Yes?”

“I think Kay may have been right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhh, right...Sorry that I glossed over the opening ceremony itself, I couldn't find a way to write it without it being too long, sorry.


	21. The Shy Panther

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember Peter? The Panther commander?

“Finally, we’re done. Hey did Miho and those girls say anything about how their festival thing is going?”

“Well, they said they defeated a joint alliance of the two French themed and affiliated schools. I think they said they were called BC Freedom and Maginot. Why do you ask, Peter?”

Peter grinned. “Eh, I just think they're like me. We’re still kids.”

“You’re 16,” Peter’s driver said. “You’re a man now at this point.”

“S-still! I’m pretty young. You guys are all in your 20s now. I’m not even 18 yet.” Peter pouted. His crewmen laughed, sitting up from their daily maintenance of their Panther. It was a fine tank, it was still it’s sandy color, although they were beginning to paint it green to fit the surrounding areas, taking extra care to ensure the Iron Cross of Germany wasn’t covered over. On the sides were thick plates of steel, along with schurzen that protected the wheels and suspension systems. The long barreled 75mm gun gleamed and shone from their constant polishing of it and the rest of the tank. Most noticeably of Peter’s Panther was how the lower gun mantlet was a thick metal bar instead of curving into the half drum shape found on the other Panther fielded by Faber and commanded by Konrad. “Wait…”

“What?” asked Peter’s loader.

“S-Someone’s coming! Everyone, hide!” the rest of his crew leaping into the bushes, Peter hesitated. Sitting in the grass was his MP40.  _ Scheiße, if someone sees that and is not from the Ooarai Panzerfahren Team... _ Peter stopped and bent over to pick up his trusty MP40, and that was all it took. All it took for the facade of secrecy built up by Faber, Miho, the Student Council, and Willy to begin it’s crumble like a dam.

“Hey, you!” Peter froze. “What’re you doing here?” Peter slowly stood, as he heard the rustling of foliage and steps behind him, and without another thought, spun around, his MP40 still in hand. Standing a few meters away from him were two girls, one with long silvery hair and another with shorter brown hair. Both wore dark gray uniforms that bore a striking resemblance to the tankers uniform that Peter himself wore. Erika pressed on with her question. “I asked-”

“Erika, calm down. He does have a gun after all.” As she said this, Maho began to put her hand into her jacket. Seeing this, Peter threw his MP40 behind him onto the Panther. “Who are you? And don’t try and lie, there’s no way there would be a Panther sitting here in the woods.”

“W-well...You're from that school, right? Kuromorimine, uh, someone asked me to help do some maintenance.”

Erika creased her eyebrows.  _ That was so obviously a lie. _ “We would’ve known if someone drove their Panther all the way out here to have maintenance done on it.”

“Rgghh.” Peter facepalmed himself. “Why are you here anyways? Why would two girls like you just walk into the woods?”

Erika glanced at her commander, who nodded and began to speak. “One of our fellow Sensha-do commanders told us in a meeting about how there’s soldiers living in the woods behind Ooarai. Based on what we’ve heard from some of the other schools, this is true. Pravda’s Katyusha said she ran into a Russian man who wore the Soviet sickle and hammer, the commanders from BC Freedom met a Frenchman in a bar deep in the Zuikaku before a man in a German uniform dragged him off. And that same day, we saw two men who fit the description of the men seen in the bar run into Ooarai. Is it true? That you’re not supposed to be here, at all?”

Peter’s eyes began to dart about. “[Scheiße.]” he muttered to himself. “I can’t confirm anything. Above all else, I have to keep up a veil of secrecy.”

“Then why is there a Panther sitting here in the woods? And a heavily modified one at that, there’s no Panther that has extra armor bolted straight onto it. Even the wheel design is different.”

“Uh-ummm…”  _ Oh no, what do I say!? _ Peter was quite conflicted. On one hand, he couldn’t just blurt out everything that had happened, but on the other, here he was confronted by two girls in a situation he definitely couldn’t worm his way out of. “Really, I can’t tell you. I have to keep secrets.”

Erika scoffed. “I think it’s already too late for that, last time I heard from St. Glorianas, a few of them said they kept smelling freshly brewed tea coming from the woods.”

Peter’s head fell with an audible groan.  _ Of course those British have to make a big deal out of brewing some tea. _ Peter groaned, “I wish I could eat some Hamburg Steak or something…”

Erika’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Hamburg steak? That’s one of my favorite foods!” and before Peter or Maho could stop her, Erika started to talk about the dish, to which only Peter gave a small smile.

“Well, it is my favorite dish as well…” and before long the two ended up talking about the beef dish. Meanwhile, Maho side stepped away from her Vice-commander and began to slowly walk around the Panther.

_ It doesn’t use the interleaving road wheels design, they're just large one piece wheels...The tracks look thicker as well, and there’s the extra bolted on armor all over it. And if it wasn’t obvious enough this is definitely not a Kuromorimine tank, this one has a different Iron Cross on it. The gun is the same 75mm KwK 42...Obviously I can’t look inside the tank itself, so I would have to ask… _

Maho’s examination of the Panther finally caught Peter’s attention, who prior was too busy talking about Hamburg Steak with Erika. “ _ Sigh... _ If what you said about us being seen everywhere and whatnot is true, then I guess the veil of secrecy is already burnt down. Who told you?”

“Kay, from Saunders. She’s the commander of their Sensha-do team, she’s blonde and very American looking.”

“I knew it. Before the ongoing festival began, the Americans found her and two others spying on us, and Faber said that Miho claimed they were from the nearby school. Just...how much did she say to you all?”

Maho paused her examination. “She told us that there were German, American, British, and Russian soldiers from another time hiding in the woods with a number of tanks, and they heard about the entire situation that landed you all here.”

Peter’s soft face suddenly twisted into an ugly expression of loathing. “[God damn Americans! Why is it that we can’t just sit around for a few months and wait to go back home…]” Peter flopped onto the ground, leaning against his Panther. “J-just go home you two. It’d be better if you left before Faber gets here.” Peter reverted back to his meek self.

“W-what? Why?”

“Leave.”

Maho rejoined Erika’s side and the two girls shared a look.

“Can I ask a few questions then?” Maho said to him suddenly. Peter jumped up.

“What? S-sure…”

Now that Peter was closer to them, Erika and Maho saw that he was nearly the exact same height as them. “What is the engine of a standard Panther?”

Peter raised his eyebrows at the question. “V-12 Maybach, I think?”  _ Oh no is she going to ask oddly specific tank questions!? _

And that’s exactly what Maho did. “What’s the power to weight ratio of a Tiger? What’s the top speed of a Panzer II offroad?” etc etc. Meanwhile, Erika smirked and smiled at her commander’s barrage of oddly specific questions, all of which began to fluster Peter. In the bushes, his crewmen began to laugh at their commander’s reactions and attempts to answer.

“ARRGH, just leave already!” Peter finally yelled out, red in the face from both frustration and embarrassment. Without another word, the two girls from Kuromorimine left, laughing.

“Hey commander, why did you barrage him with so many questions?” Erika asked once they were far away enough.

Maho gave a rare smile. “I just felt like messing with him.”


	22. The Veil comes Burning Down

Miho and the rest of the Sensha-do team promised to try and discourage and keep all other students out of the woods. Owen remembered them making a promise of steel. So why was it that here he was, sitting on a UHLS with a cup of Earl Grey tea in hand, staring at a group of four girls who looked very British staring back?

One of the girls, who had rose red hair, pointed an energetic finger. “Darjeeling, I think he’s one of ‘them’ desu wa!”

“It’s rude to point, Rosehip.” Darjeeling reminded her. “Are you perhaps one of those soldiers Kay told us about?”

Owen regained his composure. “Excuse me? I’m afraid I know no one by that name.”

“Ah, forgive me. One of my close friends and a fellow commander in Sensha-do told us in a meeting, however unintentionally she did it, that Ooarai has been hiding time traveled soldiers in the woods.”

“Huh...Then why are you bothering to look for us then?”

Darjeeling was surely a smooth talker. “Why, to see if she was telling the truth or simply pranking us. Although I guess seeing you here is enough proof, along with the tank you're sitting on.”

Owen sighed. “Well, you're here, and I’m not in the mood to chase anyone off, especially kids...Do you want tea?” he offered kindly. The four girls from St. Glorinas nodded. “Alright, let me boil some water first.” Finishing his own cup of Earl Grey, he placed down the tin cup and walked over to a burnt out fire pit, where a pot was already sitting. He took it, as it was empty, and walked through the foliage, where he found a small river that he and the other soldiers were using for water. Once he filled it up, he also grabbed some firewood and went back, lighting the fire and putting the water to boil on top. “So…” he began. “Who are you girls?”

“I’m Darjeeling, the commander of the Sensha-do Team from St. Glorianas Girls College. These two are my crewmen.” Darjeeling gestured to Assam and Orange Pekoe, who introduced themselves in turn.

“I’m Orange Pekoe, although some people call me Pekoe as my name is a bit long. I’m the loader in Ms. Darjeeling’s Churchill Mk IV.”

“I am Assam, the gunner in Darjeeling’s Churchill. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr…?”

“I’m Owen Porter. Same to you, Pekoe, Assam. And I’m guessing you're called Rosehip or something?”

“Wow, you got my name correct! How’d you know, desu wa?”

Owen chuckled, returning to watching his water boil. “Lucky guess. Your hair is rosy in color, so I thought you’d have a name relating to a rose tea, since the rest of you share names with tea.” Owen stayed crouched on the grass, while the girls from St. Glorianas had taken his place of sitting atop the UHLS. “What tea do you want? I have Earl Grey, Breakfast Tea, and...just plain black tea. I do have sugar and milk as well.” Darjeeling asked for Earl Grey, Rosehip asked for Breakfast Tea, Assam asked for black tea, and Orange Pekoe asked for Earl Grey. Soon the water was at a boil and Owen poured out the scalding liquid into four tin cups, adding the respective tea bags from a wooden box that was filled to the brim with the stuff. Soon, they began to wait for it to seep properly.

“So...What’d you do before tanks?” Assam asked.  _ This is a good chance to learn more about them before Ooarai tries anything. _

“I was a sniper in the British Army. Unlike most sharpshooters, I was assigned to infiltrate towns and cities and eliminate any commanding officers and retrieve intelligence. In that sense, I’m actually more of a commando, but everyone still calls me a sniper because I always brought my Lee Enfield Custom with me, and I still do. What made my missions so risky was that I was always sent in alone, and it wasn’t until 1943 did I get a real taste of armored warfare. By the way, how did you find me? Besides those girls you mentioned earlier telling you.”

Darjeeling laughed. “This may sound odd, but I smelled a lot of Earl Grey tea being made from outside the woods, and I remembered how Kay had blurted everything at a meeting. Anyways, please, continue with your story.”

Owen nodded. “So, I was returning to base on foot, because they couldn’t send out any cars to pick me up, and it was there I met a group of three Matilda IIs and a Churchill. Apparently they had been ambushed by German Panzers and were separated from the main group, and their commander, who was in the Churchill, had been shot by a sniper while checking for any infantry sneaking up on them, so they were lost. So I took command to guide them back to base, so that way I could send them on their jolly way. Unfortunately, while we were in the woods, the Churchill suffered engine failure from the previous battle, and we were forced to hull down and get it fixed, but it was a blessing in disguise. We went off the main road and hid in the trees, when a German tank column composed of Panzers passed by another road, which was in a field, so we took the chance and ambushed them.”

Darjeeling smiled at the story. “Sounds like quite the battle happened. How did it go?”

“Well, you see, most of the Panzers were undergunned, they couldn’t hurt us for the most part, although a few were armed with bigger cannons. I had our Churchill sit at the front, absorbing most hits while the Matildas protected the left and right flank. There we repelled 6 counterattacks.”

“Wow!” Rosehip jumped in excitement.

“A German Panther arrived, and since we didn’t have the guns to destroy it, we left, because at that point the Churchill’s engine had been fixed. I continued to do commando missions but every now and then I would take command of armored units. Well, it seems the tea is done, how much sugar and milk?”

“Not too much of either, please.” Owen added the milk and sugar, mixed it all together with a spoon, and handed the mugs to Assam, Darjeeling, Pekoe, and Rosehip respectively.

Orange Pekoe took a sip first, and Owen smiled at her eyes lighting up. “This is really good!”

Darjeeling took a sip of her tea as well. “It is! Thanks for making tea for us-”

“Owen, do you know anything about Peter being confronted by two girls and-” the newcomer froze at the sight. Everyone else froze and stared. Having come out of the bushes, Faber looked around with a look of incredulity. Then a look of disgust and disappointment, and his eyes narrowed dangerously. “And I thought you of all people would know how to stay hidden…But this is absurd!” Owen jumped up from his spot in the grass to try and calm Faber, who was now on a rant about everyone’s incompetence at staying hidden. “First the Russians hang out with those girls from that Pravda school, then Hans and the Frenchman are seen running across the street and telling war stories, Peter gets overloaded with oddly specific tank questions by two girls in German outfits and now this!?”

“W-well Niklav didn’t hang out with Pravda per se, he just helped their commander…”

“That’s besides the point! He was seen by everyone, and he was wearing that cursed bolshevik sickle and hammer while he walked around! RRRGGGHHH, this is why I HATE Russians!”

Owen tried to smile. “A-also, this isn’t what it looks like, they found me first-”

“Then why are they here drinking tea with you?” Faber asked menacingly. Owen could only offer gulps and squeaks to the German Panzerkommandant. Faber looked absolutely murderous with rage, and to the horror of Darjeeling and everyone else, he turned to the aforementioned girls. “You know everything don’t you?” it was more of a statement than a question.

Darjeeling gulped, for she had never met a man so terrifying, and she felt that his very presence commanded authority of the highest degree. “W-well…” Darjeeling felt her hand shake a little, but she calmed herself with a few deep breaths. “From what we know, you're all soldiers from an alternate time, where WW2 was longer, and you were brought here by a malfunctioning machine. For almost a month you’ve been hiding out in the woods, and if our intelligence gathering isn’t wrong, you clashed with Ooarai once, having been under their aid all this time.”

Faber snorted. “You’re not wrong, although it was only us Germans, not these Allieds.” Faber itched his face and leg. He was wearing his casual clothing, the cotton sweater, and black pants, but he still had his eyepatch, jackboots, and interestingly his officer’s cap. “Forget this, I’m going to change my clothes. [Tschüss.]” He went back through the trees, leaving the five British to sit and contemplate what just happened.

“W-what was that?” Rosehip asked while she quivered.

Owen sighed, despondent. “The most terrifying person I’ve ever seen on this Earth.”

After a few minutes, Faber returned in his full officer’s attire, leather trench coat, officer's uniform, Grand Cross medal, the whole thing. “Alright, now we can talk. What do you want?”

Darjeeling finished her tea. “We simply wanted to see if what Kay from Saunders had said was true, and I guess it is now. Perhaps we should ask Nishizumi about all of this?”

Faber tapped his boot. “Yes, lets.”

Miho sat on a high hill, watching a battle rage between Saunders and Chi-Ha-Tan. To her right sat her sister, Maho. “Chi-Ha-Tan’s strategy has certainly improved hasn’t it?” Miho watched as a Sherman was outflanked by a Type 97 Shinhoto and shot in the sides, popping out it’s white flag. From a hill, Saunders was bunkered down, sniping down on the slowly advancing Chi-Ha-Tan.

“Indeed. It’s nice to see them not charging in recklessly for once.”

“Banzai! Totsugeki!” the commanders of Chi-Ha-Tan cried out as their advance picked up drastic speed.

“Nevermind then.” Miho laughed at her sister’s response. Around them the other commanders of Kuromorimine and Ooarai sat, watching the battle unfold, when there was the sound of an engine roaring before it was cut off. Sitting on the path trailing up to the hill was a BMW R75, a motorcycle with a sidecar, and walking up behind them was the bespectacled face of Otto von Bastler.

“[Frau Nishizumi, come with me. We need you.]” he commanded with simplicity. What bothered Miho the most was that Otto made no attempt to disguise himself or his status, and he stood hard and grave in his Wehrmacht uniform while he wore a stahlhelm with side flaps of steel, and with a frontal eye cover flipped upwards. The girls from Ooarai looked at Otto with wide eyes while the tankers from Kuromorimine looked upon him with skepticism and confusion, and some of them were beginning to whisper to each other.

Miho stood and walked over to Otto to the shock of her sister. “What’s going on? Did something happen?”

“I’ll explain later when we get there.” he pointed a hand to the BMW R75. “Come on.”

“Now hold on.” Maho’s steely voice broke Otto’s concentration. “What’s your business? She is my sister after all.”

“...” Otto looked towards the sky. “You could come with us, if you don’t mind being cramped in a sidecar.”

“Erika!”

“Yes ma’am?”

Maho commanded her Vice, “Stay here and watch the match. I’m going with Miho for now, and make sure no one wanders off.”

“[Jawohl!]” Erika responded obediently. “Everyone, don’t worry, it’s just some private business, understand?” she said to the rest of the KMM commanders, who said yes in return.

“Wait, what about us?” Anzu got up from her seat, holding a half-eaten sweet potato. The rest of the Student Council watched as Otto mounted the motorcycle.

Otto turned the key in the BMW and the engine roared to life, the two Nishizumi sisters getting into the sidecar. “Sorry, I should’ve come here in a Kubelwagen if I knew you were all here too. Uhm...Just sit tight now alright? I’ll come back later.” Without another word, he pressed on the gas and the R75 began to speed down the path.

“So what’s going on?” Maho asked her sister who asked Otto.

“We’ve been having one too many run-ins with students from the other schools, and from what we’ve gathered the commander of that Saunders school told everyone in a meeting before this festival.”

“She did?” Miho remembered when Kay was in the Student Council Office.  _ She was going to say something but she changed her mind...was she talking about this whole thing? _ “The Festival hasn’t even gone on for 2 days though! There was when the schools were connected, the opening ceremony the next day, which marked when it all began and then yesterday, when we had our match against Maginot and BC Freedom. Wait...Onee-chan, does that mean you know!?”

Maho was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, Kay held a meeting before the festival so we could discuss strategy and plans for the anniversary, and she ended up talking about your situation. And yesterday, me and Erika met a kid in the woods who had an MP40 and a Panther.”

“Ah, so you met Peter. According to him, you confronted and flustered him by asking a lot of random questions about [Panzers] that he doesn’t even operate. Anyways, Faber and Willy asked to see you, so that’s why I’m here.”

Several minutes passed of the three on the BMW R75. They went from the Saunders ship down a steel bridge to the Zuikaku, before speeding down the roads to Ooarai, and finally stopping in front of the woods. Wordlessly, the Nishizumi sisters followed Otto into the woods, pushing through the bushes and leaves until they came to a clearing. Sitting atop the UHLS were the girls of St. Glorianas from earlier, with Owen sitting next to them, joking about British culture. Sitting on a long across from each other was Faber and Willy.

“Ah, Miho-san, we’ve been waiting for you.”

“Maho-san, why’re you here?” Rosehip exclaimed excitedly.

The two Nishizumi siblings sighed. “Alright, let’s get this over with.” Faber said.

Several minutes later…

Erika watched as the final Saunders tank was eliminated by a barrage of shells from Chi-Ha-Tan, and the announcer's voice blared. “Chi-Ha-Tan has eliminated all Saunders tanks. Chi-Ha-Tan wins!” Applause began to ring out from the hills and plains, while the Chi-Ha-Tan commanders and tankers began to cheer. Suddenly, Erika’s phone rang. “Hello?”

“Erika, can you pull the Student Council from Ooarai aside?”

“Hm? Sure…” Erika walked over to the Student Council. “Can you three come with me for a second? I think Maho and whoever it is that she left with want to talk to you.”

“What? Alright.” Momo swallowed. Following Erika some ways down the hill, they stopped down the path and Erika held out the phone.

“Can I? Alright, thanks.” Faber’s voice began to crackle from the smartphone speakers. “This is the Student Council from Ooarai, correct? Alright, so it turns out, that blonde girl from that Saunders school told the other schools about us, so I think we need a new objective.”

Anzu took the phone from Erika. “Alright, what’re you thinking of?”

Faber thought for a moment. “Do whatever you need to do to ensure that the government of Japan doesn’t find out. [Frau] Miho said you could ask someone from the army for help. It doesn’t matter at this point if people see us, we’ve already been seen, the greater objective is to make sure no one tells the government. Do whatever is necessary, tell the other schools in full what’s been going on for the past month or so, get that help Nishizumi mentioned, anything! Alright, I have to pass the phone back, see you in a bit.” Anzu handed the phone back to Erika before the Student Council put their heads together to formulate a plan...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally noticed that not 100% of Google Docs formatting carries over, so I apologize for any confusion that may have caused.


	23. When Secrecy is no longer an Option

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title implies, secrecy really isn't an option anymore.

The rest of the Sensha-do commanders from the other schools weren’t shocked when they were gathered into the woods and found Faber Eisenherz, Willy Nathans, the Ooarai Student Council, and the Nishizumi siblings all waiting for them. In fact, their collective thought was that Kay wasn’t lying about the entire “time travelled soldiers” thing, but now it no longer mattered. And soon, they had all created and agreed to a plan. First, no one was to talk about the situation with the Wundermotor to anyone outside of their school ships. This was easy, since the school ships were always isolated from the mainland for long periods of time. Next, was how to avoid the government. Just like how the school ships were isolated from the mainland, they too were relatively isolated from the reach of the Japanese government, although the school ships being connected together for a full month did bring some government attention. Fortunately it was limited to simply watching out for any major accidents that could endanger everything, so keeping hidden would be easy. Faber brought up that things felt to be going too smoothly, but after some more talking, he decided it would be best not to question it. And finally, to swear to carry out the plan. The question went around the circle of commanders, and finally, they agreed, before swearing to carry out the plan.  
If secrecy was no longer an option, then what more could they do?


	24. A Tank Geek and the Ratte's Den

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite brown-haired floof ball goes off to find a rat!

The next day…

“I’m gonna go looking in the Rat’s Den!” Yukari declared to her teammates.

“Yukari, are you still hung up on the entire land battleship thing?” Saori turned up from her card game with the Rabbit Team, her voice clearly showing that she was tired of Yukari’s obsession with the P.1000 Ratte.

“Yes, I am! And it’s more than just part of my hobby, think about it, a tank that never left the planning stages, finally made real! That’d be so…” Yukari shivered and sighed at the idea. “Anyways, I’m going! Wish me luck!”

“A-alright, good luck Yukari!” Saori said with a nervous smile. The Rabbit Team cheered on their senpai with full energy.

“Akiyama, please just stop…” Peter muttered to her. After pushing through the bushes she found the German commanders Peter, Konrad, Carl, and Lennard all sitting around, taking a break from maintenancing their tanks which sat out in the open surrounded by greenery. “If Faber finds out that you’re snooping again, he’ll get mad, and when Faber gets mad these days it’s usually with murderous intent.”

“Little Peter is right,”

“Stop calling me that Konrad!”

“Faber gets really angry when he sees me philandering, so I bet you trying to find anything more about us would be like that to him. Won’t stop no matter how angry he gets.”

Lennard put down his wrench. “Besides, what evidence do you have that we use a Ratte? Words don’t count if they're not recorded or heard by enough witnesses, and as someone who’s crazy about the Second World War, shouldn’t you know that Albert Speer called the damn project ridiculous? We use these.” Lennard pointed to the Tigers and Panthers, and then over to where Faber’s Tiger II sat, now painted a dark green and grey.

“Too many people, isn’t it? There’s 42 of you guys and there’s only…” Yukari paused and counted the tanks. “Six tanks, and knowing the amount of crewmen needed to man these tanks, there’s still more of you guys left.”

“Hey, it’s like Lennard said,” Carl began. “Speer said the Ratte and P.1500 Monster were ridiculous and had them cancelled. Right Peter?”

“Yeah!” the young commander replied. “Besides, even if you do go looking for anything, there are traps too.”

“Some little traps won’t stop me! I’ve trained in survival ever since I was little! Yaaah!” Yukari charged off through the foliage, leaving the four Germans amused and to continue maintenance.

Yukari began to look high and low for her target, the P.1000 Ratte. Going north from where the Germans were doing maintenance, she found a clearing with piles and piles of shells everywhere. Yukari leaned down, and saw that they were Sensha-do Federation shells, the same ones that Ooarai had given Faber and his men when they fought against them, and to the right of those piles were shells that she realized were real, live shells. She picked one up, and while she was strong enough to lift the 75mm shells used in the Panzer IV, a good deal of the shells here were 88mm, definitely heavier. “Dang, these guys are really prepared for war huh? I hope they don’t get them mixed together, that’d be a disaster.” Yukari placed down the 88mm shell back into a stack before continuing forwards. She went down a small path that seemed promising when she felt a wire tug at her ankle before something flew into her fluffy brown hair. “What the..?” Yukari reached behind her head and pulled out from her hair, a dart with a glass chamber full of a white liquid. Yukari felt herself go cold.  _ These guys are serious! _

Yukari threw the dart away.  _ Jeez, I better be careful now. Alright, where was I? Ah right, my Ratte hunt!  _ Yukari took approximately 21 steps before she felt a wave of cold water splash all over her, soaking her clothes and herself to the skin. Yukari yelped as a man wearing a Kreigsmarine uniform stepped out of the foliage. Seeing the serrated knife in his left hand, she realized it was Ralph, who stopped and stared. Yukari felt herself blush before she put her hands over her chest.

Ralph tipped his head and smirked. “Camouflage underwear? That’s cute…”

“Just stop!”

Ralph began to laugh, which sounded along the lines of, “Hickhickhickikik.” it was a high and honestly, quite horrible laugh, one that only a cruel person would have. “You pulled that trap first, and it took you 5 seconds until you covered yourself. I still think it’s cute.” Yukari, her face now absolutely blood red, threw a punch and hit Ralph square in the face, knocking him to the ground. “Ow.” Ralph said unfazed, even though his nose was starting to bleed.

“Hmph!” Yukari stormed off before Ralph could tease and insult her more. “That guy is a real freak...Back to looking for the Ratte.” She kept going forwards, rubbing her now wet hair. She placed her foot forwards and felt it begin to fall, but she kicked forwards with her other leg and found herself on the other side of a pit trap. A few minutes later, Yukari felt another wire press against her leg, and before she could react, a bright red stielhandgranate was dropped at her feet. It burst open, spraying her with a warm red liquid.  _ Wait… _ ”Is this blood!?” It wasn’t, it was just blood red dye, but it made Yukari look as though she were on the wrong side of an MG-42. Yukari spat some out and kept going. “I’m not going to let some traps stop me!” Yukari suddenly froze, staring at the mud and dirt. Sitting there in the ground were tread marks. Massive ones, so large that any tanks caught under whatever had rolled there before would be reduced to scrap. “Are these?” Yukari’s wet, paint covered face lit up. “It has to be!” Like a bloodhound tracing its prey, she followed the tracks. “These are very deep in the ground, and the treads are quite wide apart…” Yukari straight upwards, and her heart began to race and hammer in her chest. Through the thick foliage of trees and bushes and vines, was a square patch of steel. “I...I did it! I found the Ratte!”

*click*

“[Frau], turn around.” Yukari froze. Standing behind her, his Walther P38 in his right hand, Faber aimed the pistol directly at her back. “I said turn around.”

“F-Faber? What’s-?”

“Yukari, I may like you, but I wasn’t joking when I said me and my men would keep our secrets until the very end.  **Turn. Around** .” Yukari turned around, her eyes widening at the sight of Faber’s extended gun arm. “Let me guess, you’re looking for our ‘tank’ and you triggered our traps? Well I most certainly commend you for being able to push through them all.” Yukari tried to speak, but her voice turned into a squeak. “Feh. Just speak.” Faber holstered his pistol. Yukari swallowed instead. “I saw Ralph earlier. You’re pretty strong, and…” Faber smirked devilishly. “Camouflage panties?”

Regaining her strength, Yukari immediately shrieked, “So what!? It’s comfortable! And that Ralph guy is a creep!”

Faber gave a light-hearted sigh. “He’s always been like that, according to Eric and Clemmons, the only time he’s ever shown real expression was when he would sing der mächtigste könig im luftrevier when he was still a senior officer on the Bismarck. If that’s what he’s truly like, I would kill to see it, but now we all just know him as a psychopath.”

“I could tell.”

“Hm, well, anyone can...anyways, just...please, give up.”

“Why though? You know me, I love tanks, and getting to see a Ratte would be tremendous!”

“I can tell,” Faber laughed, mirroring Yukari’s words. “But...me and my men swore that we would never give the Ratte up to our enemies. When HItler questioned how dedicated I was, I said I would drive it into hell myself, all in the name of the Fatherland.” Faber paused, seemingly in contemplation, reading Yukari’s body language. It was the body language of a scared girl. “Not in Hitler’s name no, for [Deutschland]. Not him.”

Yukari swallowed, wetting her dry throat. It was at that moment Yukari realized that they had never asked Faber, nor any of his men, one defining question. “I...we never asked you about…’him’...so your not a-?”

“[Frau.]” Faber walked close to Yukari bending down slightly to look straight into her eyes. “I hate him, and I hate them. When you see your comrades again, and if they ask about Hitler and the Nazis, tell them that I said I would be delighted to see them be dragged to hell by Satan himself.” Faber raised himself back up and told Yukari, “Please, just leave us this one thing for now. [Auf wiedersehen.]” he turned around and left through the foliage, leaving Yukari to contemplate her choices in looking for the P.1000 Ratte.


	25. The Stahlrattes vs the Centipede and Hussars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shizuka is itching for a fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shizuka is the MC of Ribbon Warrior if none of you have read that.  
> https://gup.fandom.com/wiki/Girls_und_Panzer:_Ribbon_Warrior

“Nishizumi-sama!” a voice called to Miho.

“Yes?” Miho turned and saw that it was Shizuka Tsuruki shadowed by her friend and tank driver Rin Matsuzake.

“I asked around your team about Eisenherz...Is it true that he defeated you in a battle?”

Miho scratched the back of her head, smiling nervously. “Yeah, he did...He actually got the jump on us right as the match started, why do you ask?”

Shizuka stood with the greatest intent to listen to Miho. “Please, continue, how did your battle with Eisenherz play out?”

“Well, I first had Turtle and Hippo Team take a position on a hilltop, and I sent out the Type 89 to scout out where Faber’s men were. However the Duck Team was found and defeated by one of Faber’s men, who drove a modified Panzer II, before he moved onto us and disabled all of our tracks, leaving us stuck in an open area. Then Faber’s two Panthers and Tigers arrived and before we managed to chase them off we lost the Rabbit Team and the Chi-Nu, although it wasn’t eliminated somehow.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s what I found so odd about it...An 88mm shell had destroyed the gun mantlet and the gun itself but the Chi-Nu wasn’t out of it, so I had them hang back as a last resort. We did manage to take out one of their Tigers though...Anyways, we managed to defeat the rest of the tanks, leaving on Ooarai, the Turtle Team, Hippo Team, and me and the rest of the Anglerfish Team. Faber was the only one left, so he came out of hiding. Right away he eliminated the Turtle and Hippo Team, and after we duelled for a few minutes we managed to disable each other at the exact same time.”

“So wait, you won?” Rin raised her eyebrow.

Miho shook her hand. “No, the thing was, we forgot about the Panzer II the whole time…The Anteater Team tried to flip them over but the Panzer II just finished off the Chi-Nu. So, in the end, Faber and his men won because he simply had a better plan.”

“Huh...I see…” Shizuka smirked.

Rin’s eyes widened when she realized what her friend was thinking of doing. “Shizuka, you're not thinking of-?”

“Hah! Anyone who beat a Nishizumi is a worthy opponent in my eyes! Come on Rin, I think I’ve just found a new opponent for the Tankathlon Alliance!”

Now in the thick of the woods, Shizuka smirked broadly as Faber eyed her down with his one uncovered eye. “Tankathlon? Is that another [Panzersport] like Panzerfahren?”

“Yup! Same thing, but the catch is that only tanks under 10 tons are allowed, so it’s limited to Light tanks and Tankettes. Wanna have a go?” Rin hovered over Shizuka’s shoulder, smiling, but more out of nervousness.

_ This Faber guy is seriously scary! _ She kept telling herself.

Faber turned his head over his right shoulder. “[Hans! Achtung!]”

The bushes behind Faber began to rustle and bustle, and before long a man jumped through doing a hop and front flip before standing still and clacking his boots together loudly. “[Jawohl?]”

“Hans, these two girls are challenging us to something called Tankathlon. It’s the same thing as Panzerfahren, but it limits the tanks to Light Tanks and Tankettes. Based on your entrance I presume you're in the mood to go speeding off again?”

Hans grinned a mad smile. “If it’s Light Tanks, then of course!” he turned to Shizuka and Rin, still grinning. “Let’s get started soon, shall we? [Marsch!]”

Shizuka returned the smile with the same demeanor. “Looks like we’ve got a energetic one. What will your banner name be, mister Eisenherz? Lions? Tigers? Panthers? What’ll it be?”

“Stahlrattes.”

For a few moments Shizuka couldn’t believe her ears. “Wait, did you say rats?”

Faber responded, “[Ja. Stahlrattes]. It means Steel Rats.”

Out in a field, a final shot was fired as a 7TPJW sat with its barrel smoking. “Bonple High School wins!” Sitting in the small turret’s cupola, a blonde girl sat watching over the chaos she brought against Anzio’s Tankettes. The radio in the 7TP suddenly buzzed to life with a new message from outside the match.

“Jakja-dono, I found some new opponents for us to fight! They call themselves Stahlrattes, and they agreed to fight using Tankathlon regulations.”

Jakja scoffed. “Rats? Then as the Winged Hussars of tank sports, we’ll crush them beneath our hooves!”

Miho breathed deep as she finally reached the top of the observation tower. On the Bonple ship was a large flat plain where they would train and fight for Tankathlon, and one if it’s features was a tall observation tower several stories high. That way spectators could see the battles unfold. “Stil...Why couldn’t they have installed a lift or something?” she opened the door to the outside observation deck and felt her breath be taken away. “Wow…It’s so wide.”

“It is, huh? Just like the Zoo Tower that used to be in Berlin.” someone remarked behind Miho, who turned around and saw Erwin and her team walking up into the central room where a large spotlight was held. “How are you, Miho?”

“I’m doing great, thanks!”

“So, Eisenherz and Hans are going to fight Jakja and Shizuka? Sounds like a big fight, huh?” Caesar, Oryou, and Saemonza nodded in agreement individually.

Caesar put a hand on her chin. “Wait...The only light tank that Faber has is the Panzer II, right? So how is he going to fight against…” Caesar waved her hand at the now arriving Bonple force. “That.” It was 29 Bonple Tanks, and Shizuka’s red Type 97 Te-Ke. The Bonple forces consisted of 19 7TP variants, and a few 9 and 10TPs to fill the remaining 10 spots. “Jesus...If the Germans can prevail over that, then it’s going to look like the Defeat of Boudica.”

“That’s it!” the rest of the Hippo Team cried.

Back on the ground, Jakja opened the hatch and sat on the cupola. “Shizuka, where are they? Where are the rats?”

Shizuka herself was standing proudly in the cupola of her Type 97 Te-Ke. “Right there, Jakja-dono.” Shizuka pointed her finger straight ahead of where Jakja’s 7TPJW was, right towards two tanks.

One sandy colored Panzer II, and one steel blue Panzer II with 4 guns. Already standing next to their respective tanks were Faber and Hans, their blue eyes steeled for a fight. Jakja dismounted her tank and began to walk towards the two Germans.  _ This is it? I thought they would’ve had more tanks than just two Panzer IIs, if they really are time travelled soldiers. _ “How are you on this fine day?” she politely asked.

“[Guten tag.] You are [Kommandantin] Jakja, correct?”

“Indeed. So are these all of your forces, Commander Eisenherz?”

“[Ja.] Shall we begin, Jakja?”

“Hmm...Yes, let’s. Everyone into positions!” Jakja sprinted into her 7TPJW as it began to drive off with the rest of the Bonple-Centipede forces. Uszka, Jaka’s second-in-command, opened up her tank’s cupola and looked out towards her commander.

“Jakja, what’s your plan? This is a 30 vs 2.”

Jakja began to laugh. “We’ll charge them! Whatever that mess of a Panzer II was, we’ll destroy it and the other one! Uszka, keep an eye out for Eisenhertz’s Panzer II, the sandy colored one, he  is  the commander after all. Their flag tank is the blue Panzer II, and from what I’ve seen up close it only has four machineguns. This’ll be too easy. Halt! We’re in position.”

Back atop the tower, the spectators turned at the sound of the door opening, and they watched as several others reached the final step to the top. “S-see! I-*wheeze*told you that Katyusha could climb up herself! Can you carry me now Nonna?”

“Of course.” Nonna paused to look up at Miho and the Hippo Team. “Good afternoon. I assume you're here to watch the battle?” she asked them as Katyusha climbed onto her back and shoulders.

“Oh, Katyusha, Nonna! Yeah we are, good day to you too!” Miho called out to them. Miho smiled even more when she saw climbing up the steps, her sister Maho, Darjeeling, Asparagus, and Alisa. “Are you all here to watch?”

“Indeed we are,” Darjeeling answered with her calm and polite demeanor, while she took a sip of her darjeeling tea. “I must say, when I heard about how Commander Eisenherz defeated you, I was quite intrigued to find out how strong he is on the battlefield. It does make sense, as he is a real soldier after all.”

Maho raised an eyebrow. “He did?” and everyone stared at her. “Sorry, I was busy with matches from other schools and PR. So how did he beat you, Miho?” Miho delved into a quick yet detailed summary of her battle against Faber, and how Faber won by drawing out his plan so Hans would be the last one alive if all else failed. “Although I get the feeling now that if he wanted, Faber could’ve easily knocked us all out without any losses on his own side. So that’s how he won, ehehehe…” Miho giggled towards the end seeing the expressions on the faces of the new arrivals. “Anyways, the match is about to begin. Who’s the referee?”

Maho picked a transceiver from her jacket. “I am. Bonple asked me to oversee this match since we can’t have any official referees because of how secretive everything’s become lately.” Maho turned on the transceiver and once the buzzing ended and a beep indicated it was connected, she spoke into it with a firm voice. “Are combatants ready and in position?”

“[Ja!]”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Alright, in 3...2...1…[Kampf!]”

Bonple rolled out, with Shizuka’s Type 97 Te-Ke being the most noticeable tank on the entire field. “Over there!” Shizuka called out to her teammates. Worn over her ordinary outfit was samurai armor, which she had claimed earlier was merely for the flair and it looked good. “It’s Eisenherz and Hans, their splitting off!” Shizuka and the rest of the Bonple team watched as Faber drove off behind a hill and into an area surrounded by cliffs, and to Shizuka’s surprise, Hans, the flag tank of the Stahlratts Team drove directly towards them, not even bobbing or weaving, just driving straight forwards.

“Open fire!” Jakja commanded. Shizuka dropped into her turret and turned the gun to the left before pulling the trigger. The 37mm shell flew from the barrel, but to Shizuka’s shock, Hans’ Panzer II suddenly picked up speed and dodged the shell entirely. The Panzer II drove over a bump in the ground, and it literally flew forward, right over the Bonple lines before any of them could line up a proper shot. It crashed onto the ground before continuing to drive off, while Jakja issued a new command. “Uszka, go after Eisenherz, make sure he doesn’t flank us! You half, go with Uszka, the rest of us will go after their flag tank! [Panzer marsch!]” Uszka watched as her commander sped off in her 7TPJW, accompanied by the dozen or so other 7TP variants. Uszka herself was accompanied by several Renault FT-17s and a few RK Tankettes to go after Faber. Uszka’s own 7TP was the flag tank of Bonple. Driving down the surrounded path they finally stopped when they came upon a dead end, where sitting in the cupola of his Panzer II, Faber stared them all down.

Uszka felt his eyes pierce into her body and seemingly into the interiors of all the 15 Bonple Tanks gathered.  _ What is this guy doing? He’s surrounded and he won’t be stopping any shots from us in that Panzer II. _ “Open-”

“Uszka? Uszka, are you there!?” The radio buzzed and suddenly, Usza found Shizuka’s voice blaring to all the gathered tanks.

“What’s wrong? Did you find the flag tank?” Uszka kept an eye on Faber. “We caught Eisenherz, he’s just sitting here, doing nothing, he’s dead in the water.

“It’s the other Panzer II! It’s not a Panzer II at all, it’s like some typhoon!”

“W-what do you mean?”

Shizuka turned the turret of her Te-Ke and fired a shell, which missed its target by several meters to the left. “It wiped out everyone except for me, he should be coming your way any moment! Rin, get to cover-” The radio cut to silence just as there was a horribly loud sound from the other end.

“Crap! Everyone, keep an eye out, the flag tank is coming this way! Open fire on Eisenherz!” The Renaults and RK Tankettes opened fire on Faber’s PzII, and with the roar of the engine the Panzer II dodged most of the shells and AT rounds except for one which impacted clean with the turret ring. Turning around to the opening in the cliffs where the path lay, Uszka held her breath as her target came into view. The steel blue Panzer II of Hans. “Be careful, he wiped out Jakja and the rest!” Uszka dropped into her 7TP’s turret and aimed it’s turret with sure aim. 17 engines revved loudly, one on Uszka’s direct rear, and the other right in front of her. The air was palpable with suspense. Atop the watchtower, Miho and the rest of the spectators watched the standoff with baited breath, but it wasn’t for the Germans.

“[Hans, the moment they begin firing or moving, you know what to do.]”

“[Jawohl.]” replied Hans, grinning in excitement. Both of his hands were clamped tightly around the trigger of the four guns of his Panzer. Then, all hell broke loose, as one of the Renault FT-17s fired first. “[Hit the gas!]” Hans’ driver slammed onto the accelerator and the Panzer shot forward, dodging the shell, before Hans’ driver slammed onto the brakes next with a violent turn of the steering wheel, drifting the tank a full 360 degrees, dodging the remaining shells. With a push of the trigger, the four 20mm autocannons of Hans’ Panzer II tore to life, spewing it’s powerful armor piercing ordinance towards the fifteen light tanks. At the same time, Hans turned the turret with his left hand, allowing for the shells to get maximum spread among the perfectly lined up Bonple tanks.

Uszka shouted for another shell to be fired as she slammed a shell into the gun breech, just as Hans’ Panzer II began it’s barrage. Uszka’s eyes widened as bright green tracer’s cut through the air, and even from a distance the sound of all four auto-cannons was deafening, nearly drowning out Uszka’s reiterated command. “OPEN FIRE!” The barrage suddenly ended and the blue Panzer II began reverse, before the engine roared again and it shot off down the rocky trail. “We have to chase it-” The sound of a 20mm autocannon ripped through the air once more, this time from the rear. The few remaining Bonple tanks, which now numbered at six to the shock of all watching, began to drive off after the Stahlratt’s flag tank when the new barrage hit one of them several times in the engine compartment. Uszka turned around, this time to see Faber’s Panzer II on the move, firing its gun.

Atop the tower, Darjeeling watched the battle with a deep examining eye. “It seems that they’ve deceived their enemy. As Sun Tzu would say, ‘All war is deception.’”

“How?” Katyusha asked while atop Nonna’s shoulders.

“In Tankathlon, there is the 10 ton weight limit that limits all battles to light tanks and tankettes.” Maho watched the battle rage on through a screen which was connected to a few camera drones so other students could watch everything. “The tanks that Eisenherz is fielding exceed the weight limit. Eisenherz is using a Panzer II Luchs, which weighs at 11 tons, and the Panzer II flag tank seems to be even heavier. It’s too fast and efficient to be under 10 tons, and it has the additional autocannons. But it’s not only that, it seems.”

“Your right, Maho-san.” Darjeeling said smartly. “It seems they’ve tricked Jakja into thinking the Panzer II flag tank was undergunned, which is why Shizuka and Jakja’s forces were wiped out. Now, Uszka is stuck between a powerful tank commander and a powerful tank, hammer and anvil.”

On the field, Shizuka sat on her wrecked Type 97 Te-Ke, deep in thought. Just then, Jakja walked up to her followed by some of her comrades. “Trying to make an analogy, Shizuka?”

“Indeed. In fact, I think I just came up with one.”

“Let’s hear it then. What’s your analogy of this battle?”

“I believe it would be a Samurai and Hussars fighting a diseased rat. Throughout history rats have brought disease onto even the most powerful armies, have they not? It’s just like this battle. It only takes a few sickened rats to ravage an army.” Shizuka’s analogy put Jakja’s imagination into gear, and Jakja imagined an image to describe the battle. Her and her troops as Winged Hussars, and Shizuka and Rin as Samurai, all of them keeled with disease, surrounded by metal rats releasing toxins, all the while, Faber and Hans stood tall and proud, rats swarming from their feet, the most smug and triumphant smiles on their faces.

“I think you're right Shizuka. It really does take only a few small rats to devastate an army.”

As Jakja agreed with Shizuka, Maho’s voice boomed over the speakers. “Bonple Flag Tank has been eliminated, therefore the win goes to the Stahlratts!”

“Welp, we lost…” Jakja muttered to no one in particular as she sat on the grass.

“But!” Everyone’s ears perked up.

“The tanks used by the Stahlratts weigh over 10 tons, as the Panzer II used by Eisenherz is of the Luchs variant, which weighs 11 tons, along with their flag tank, which weighs nearly 16 tons. Therefore the win should actually go to Bonple and Shizuka.”

“Wait, they cheated!?” Jakja screamed with utmost outrage. Uszka sat frozen in the turret of her 7TPJW, the armor still smoking from the numerous hits it had taken from Hans’ 20mm storm. Faber and Hans sat in their respective tanks, with the most infuriating grins on their faces, just before Uszka herself began to flip out over the fact that the Germans had cheated. Back in the tower, Otto von Bastler stood next to Maho with a large piece of paper, a nervous smile on his face. Earlier he had arrived on the tower to tell them all how heavy Hans’ tank was and it’s technological specs since he had made it, and arrived just in time for Maho to reveal the true weight of the two Panzers and to watch Bonple rage out.

“I guess they should’ve weighed the tanks before hand hm?” Otto remarked to only himself.


	26. The Stahlrattes vs the Centipede and Hussars, part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Round 2, fight!

“I demand a rematch! You fielded heavier tanks, let’s fight using heavy hitters then shall we!?” Jakja was heard screaming at Faber and Hans. The latter two were leaned back on their PzIIs sipping tea Darjeeling had brought while the rest of the spectators from the tower had come down to give their condolences to Bonple for only winning on a technicality. “We’ve got an Archer and a whole lot of other things, we can take you on!”

Faber finished his cup of tea. “Are you sure? I use a Konigstiger personally. My men also use two Tigers and two Panthers, and Hans will still be in his Panzer II.”

“Yes! We’ve taken down tanks that outweigh us, I think we stand a good chance!”

“Alright. When should we fight again? Tomorrow? The day after?”

“The day after tomorrow is good, it should give me and Jakja-dono time to repair our tanks and think of a strategy.” Shizuka popped into the conversation. “We’ll show you the strength of Light Tanks!”

Hans blew a brief raspberry. “Well I should know that, my Panzer II can wreck up tank treads. It’s destroyed Shermans before even. Welp, I should go get everyone ready, I’ll see you back at base Faber.”

“Alright, see you there.” Hans hopped into his Panzer II and he was heard telling his driver to get it started, and within seconds the steel blue Panzer II was shooting off down the field before driving off down a path to the main roads of Bonple to go back to Ooarai. “Did he ever tell you what we call his Panzer II?”

“No? We just call it Hans’ Panzer II since we don’t know how else to differentiate it.” Miho tipped her head slightly to the right.

“Odd. We call it the Panzer II ‘Sturmwind’ since it shares similarities to a Wirbelwind SPAA, although the Sturmwind has a lot of differences hence the name...Anyways, I should get going as well, I’ll see you later!” Faber handed his cup back to Darjeeling and just like Hans, shot off in his Panzer II Luchs down the trail and roads to assemble his truppen.

“Alright, Uszka, do we still have the 37mm warheads?”

Uszka’s face fell. “Jakja, I’m afraid we ran out of them. We used them all up fighting the other schools remember? And as far as I know Kuromorimine doesn’t have any more.”

“I’m afraid we don’t.” Maho answered. “I  can however loan you some tank destroyers we don’t need at Kuromorimine, if you want. We have Marder I, II, and IIIs, and a Nashorn or two.”

Jakja thought to herself.  _ Before we rejected most of the other schools, but now… _ ”Alright, I accept. Let’s see what we can use, shall we?” Jakja menaced.

“Peter, Konrad, Carl, Lennard, are you ready to move out?”

“[Jawohl!]” the four Panzer Commanders responded over the radio. Peter and Konrad sat in the cupola of their respective Panthers while Carl and Lennard stayed within the turret of their Tigers. Faber himself was ready for a war in his Tiger II.

“[Alright then. Panzer, vorwärts!]” The five heavy tanks roared to life and they began to rumble down the road to the place they were to have their rematch with Bonple and Shizuka. The train that had brought them to the battlefield began to chug off down the railway, and a few minutes of driving later, the battlefield came into view. It was a massive field, with a few large paths that could serve as cover for any smaller tanks. Around the field was a large forest, with there being one large opening in a cliff slide that was wide enough that taking a look at it, Faber realized several Tigers could fit side by side in it. While the field was mostly dry, there were some areas of marsh and water.  _ We could bog down there if we’re not careful. _ “Take note of the environment, everyone. Just like we always do, use everything we have available to our advantage.”

Jakja watched from her position atop her Archer Tank Destroyer, standing on its gun barrel. “So you’re here again. The Rats. Uszka, double check all of our new tank destroyers are in mint condition?”

“Yes ma’am. The Marders are ready, and our Nashorn is working great as well.” Next to Uszka, who was now sitting in a Marder III tank destroyer were several other Marders, of 1, 2, and 3, and to the far right at the end of the line of Polish and German tanks was a Nashorn tank destroyer, with it’s massive 88mm gun. All the newly acquired tank destroyers had large grey carbon tarps to cover the opened top. Finally, the five German Heavy tanks of the Stahlratts came to a halt in front of the Bonple line, which included Shizuka in her Type 97 Te-Ke who was next to Jakja’s Archer. Atop a steep, grassy cliff, the same watchers as the first match were there, but they were joined by several others not long later.

“Heya Miho! Maho!” Kay called out to the Nishizumi sisters. She was closely followed by Naomi and Alisa who waved in turn. Following the Saunders girls were Kinuyo Nishi and Fukuda from Chi-Ha-Tan, Anchovy, Pepperoni, and Carpaccio from Anzio, the latter of whom gleefully called out Caesar’s real name and were followed by Marie, Asparagus, and Eclair as well.

“Hello Miho-sama! It’s nice to see you here!” Kinuyo said loudly and energetically. “I was thinking of asking, may we be your next opponents?”

Miho smiled. “Of course, Nishi-san. Actually, me and Maho are thinking of having a large joint-match between any schools that want to join, so that’s great!”

“Oh, really? Who’s going to fight in it?” Fukuda asked as she hopped onto a bench.

Miho held out her hand and began to count them off. “Well, so far we’ve got Saunders, Kuromorimine, Ooarai, Pravda, and Jatkosota. That’s it so far, unless you want to join?” Miho asked kindly.

Nishi exclaimed with formality, “Miho-sama, it would be an honor to join you in that fight! But, it seems the battle we’ve all come here to watch is about to start…” Nishi’s reminder combined with the roaring of five heavy tank engines brought everyone back to reality as the German tanks turned to move to their spots, Bonple following suit with Shizuka at their side.

Faber began to command his soldiers from his Tiger II. “Alright, they have several Marder tank destroyers and a Nashorn. Those are our biggest threats, prioritize taking them out first. Peter, Lennard, you two split off, Carl and Konrad as well. Split off, I will draw their attention and you will go around to hit them from their flanks. [Frau] Nishizumi told us that they may use 37mm Warheads to pierce our armor, but from what Edgar’s reconnaissance has gathered, they’re out of them completely. Do I need to repeat myself?”

“[Nein.]” Peter called into his radio. “The battle’s going to start soon anyways.”

“Participants are in place. Battle will begin in 10 seconds…9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...begin!” Atop one of the cliffs, a Bofors 40mm AA gun fired a shell into the sky, which burst into a bright flash of white smoke. The battle had begun. Soon the arena was filled with the rumbling of tanks of various weight classes, and not long into that as well, the blasting and roaring of guns. There was nothing particularly special about the battle at first. Bonple’s tactic was to distract Faber’s tanks and try to hit them from the sides with their tank destroyers, but unfortunately for them, most of Faber’s tankers simply ignored the weak light tanks and tankettes, firing their main guns at the TDs instead. It wasn’t until Shizuka put a certain tactic into play did things heat up considerably.

“What!? She’s doing that thing again?” Miho cried out as Shizuka smirked at Faber. Standing in the turret of her Type 97 Te-Ke, Shizuka blocked the end of Faber’s gun with herself, standing with her head and shoulders right in front of the 88mm gun.

Faber had an incredulous look on his face. “[Reverse!]” Faber commanded in German, his Tiger II lurched into reverse, but Shizuka followed, keeping his gun blocked while in her peripheral vision a Marder II was beginning to take aim. “[Forwards then!]” and the Tiger II lurched forward, but Rin put the Te-Ke into reverse, keeping Shizuka in place to block Faber’s main gun. The Marder II’s gun roared and launched it’s 75mm shell right into the Tiger II turret on it’s left side. Faber felt himself be jolted by the impact, and he began to feel his blood boil.

Shizuka laughed to herself, and she taunted, “What’re you going to do? Fire and blow my head off? You wouldn’t do that, would you?” she laughed even more at Faber’s face, which was twisted into an expression of fury.

“Then you know nothing about me!” he screamed.

Shizuka flinched.  _ What the… _

“[Maschinengewehre, offenes Feuer!]”

The sound of machine guns tore through the air, splitting the brief silence created by Shizuka’s gambit. Rin froze in the driver’s seat as bright green tracers spat from the hull and coaxial MGs of the Tiger II. The guns halted their attack and Rin twisted around to see Shizuka drop down into the body of the tank, with her hands and arms filled with blood red scratches. “Shizuka!” Rin grabbed one of Shizuka’s arms. The wounds were light, but they were there. “Did he shoot you?”

“N-no...He shot the tank, but the shrapnel from the bullets is what scratched me, not the bullets themselves...Still hurts though, heh.”

“We should pause the match, your-” Rin and Shizuka heard a massive explosion at point blank before they were thrown around the Te-Ke's steel interior. The Te-Ke was flipped on it’s side and the white flag of defeat popped out from its bottom. “Ouch…” the two girls muttered. Rin opened a hatch and peeked out, seeing the smoking barrel of the 88mm Tiger II. She watched as the Tiger II was thrown into reverse, turning it’s hull to face the Marder II before another shell was fired right into the thin frontal armor of the Marder II, which was thrown backwards before smoke poured out from the hull. It’s crew were seen flopping onto the ground just as the white flag popped up from it’s hull.

“Wow…” Maho muttered to herself. “He’s ruthless, isn’t he?”

Kay looked at the swiftness and harshness that Faber had dealt with Shizuka with both awe and shock. “Jesus...He’s the kind of guy you don’t want to play around with…”

“You're definitely right about that missy.” a high ragged voice hollered. The girls twisted around and saw three new arrivals. The brown haired and bearded Willy Nathans, his brother Nathan, and the haggard voiced Daniel. “Back in our time we know Faber for one thing and one thing only, and that’s killing with brutal efficiency.”

Nathan nodded, his pilot's goggles bobbing around his neck. “He’s got such a name for himself that our unit Green Day’s second goal is to track him down. That never really happened though eh?” Willy stayed quiet. The three Saunders commanders jumped at the sight of the three American soldiers, but Daniel flashed a crooked smile made of lightly stained teeth and the three sighed in relief. Meanwhile the battle continued to rage on between the Stahlratts and Bonple. As the match was an elimination style battle, Bonple had the advantage in numbers, but Faber and his men had the definite technological advantage. Only the Nashorn and Marders had a chance of destroying them at an effective range.

Willy analyzed the current state of the battle. Bonple was slowly retreating to cover while the Germans pressed forward, firing their guns and taking out a few more Polish tanks. “Knowing Faber I bet he’ll split up his forces.” Just as Willy stated this, the German tanks suddenly fired out smoke grenades shroading them all in smoke. Through the smoke the commanders veered off into the ravines in the high cliffs. “I knew it. I’ve seen his battles before, he loves doing this.”

Miho nodded at what Willy was getting at. “Faber was going to encircle us by using himself as a distraction in our battle against him.”

“Yup. That kraut sure loves doing it, in his most successful battles he would encircle American and British tanks while they were too distracted trying to kill him. Then his men could sweep them up with brutal efficiency.” Willy watched, however as Faber himself went down one of the wide ravines. “Nevermind, looks like the guy’s doing something different.” While this all happened, Daniel rubbed his stomach.

“I shoulda eaten before we left…” the southerner bemoaned. Suddenly, he spotted Anchovy and Pepperoni eating large sticks of fried fish and before anyone could stop him he nabbed one and ate it right then and there.

“Hey that’s ours!” Anchovy cried in obvious outrage.

“Whatever you’ve got enough of that stuff to last a couple hours a few sticks shouldn’t be no problem.” Daniel jeered. Carpaccio and Caesar just giggled at the scene. Pepperoni started yanking at Daniel’s arm when he took even more fried fish sticks, but Daniel unzipped his jacket and twisted his arms back, allowing for Pepperoni to fall on the ground with a loud thud, the olive green jacket in her hands. Daniel continued to nom on the fish sticks, now in a white tank top.

“Owie…” Pepperoni muttered as she sat back up, when she noticed something odd about Daniel’s jacket. The American flag was on the arms alright, but it’s appearance was odd. Mixed with the stars was something else, a blood red rectangle with a blue X pattern with more stars in the stripes. “Eh, probably nothing.” Pepperoni rejoined her Duce on the bench, throwing the jacket back into Daniel’s face.

Back in the battle on the lowground, Jakja pursued Faber in her Archer, accompanied by a 10TP and a few other smaller tanks. “[ogień!]” she commanded in Polish. The gun of the archer spat fire and the 75mm shell made direct contact with the Tiger II’s glacis, but simply didn’t do anything. “Damn it, we need to get around to its sides!” Faber suddenly ducked into the turret, closing the hatch behind him. The Tiger IIs turret quickly turned to face upwards at one of the cliff sides and fired it’s gun. The shell blew apart a part of the cliff before a massive amount of dirt and stone fell down into the ravine, Jakja ducking her head to stop herself from getting hit by stones. When she looked up again, a massive pile of rubble lay where the 10TP was. “10TP, come in...10TP!?” Jakja leapt out from underneath the carbon tarp to the rubble pile, and to her relief, the gun of the cavalry tank was still poking out despite the large stones piled around. “Are you girls okay?”

A muffled voice came through. “Yeah, we’re fine but we’re stuck. Our movements are dead and we can’t get out of the tank either. The gun’s all good though!” the 37mm gun lit up and a shell hit the Tiger II, which had halted. “Hatches are stuck though…”

“Hold on, does anybody have-”

“Jakja look out!” one of her crewmen in the Archer screamed at her. An 88mm shell suddenly hit the pile of rubble, sending Jakja flying backwards into the dirt, hitting her head against a loose stone. “Jakja! Why you!?” The Archer lit up the Tiger II, but it immediately returned that favor by sending it backwards with an 88mm shell to the front, which also held the engine, which in turn burst into a column of fire and smoke. Jakja began to lift herself up and her head began to throb in pain. Putting a hand to the back of her head, she drew it back in front of her face and saw a bit of blood before she blacked out.

Uszka was pursuing one of the Panthers when her radio buzzed. “Jakja’s been knocked out! Uszka, should we continue to pursue Eisenherz?”’

“No, let him go. Look for the others, they’re weaker!” Uszka paused for a moment. “What do you mean by knocked out? You said that weirdly…”

The radio was silent for a few seconds before the voice on the other end said, “One of the 10TPs was buried when the Tiger II fired on the cliffs. Jakja tried to help them because they couldn’t get out of their tank but Eisenherz fired again, Jakja got thrown backwards and hit her head. She’s knocked out in the sense that her Archer was taken out and literally because she’s out cold.”

Uszka slammed her fist against the turret of her Nashorn. “Damn it! Don’t pursue Eisenherz, he’s too dangerous!”

“Roger that!”

The Nashorn’s gunner aligned a shot with the Panther and pulled the trigger. The 75mm shell went flying out towards the Panther, but it barely swerved to the side dodging the shell. The turret began to rotate to face backwards, before it stopped and went facing straight ahead again. Countless smaller shells zipped past the Panther, and the few that hit were too weak to do any damage. Surrounded by trees, a few of the Light Tanks and Tankettes got caught in the underbrush, some just crashing head on into trees. The hatch on the Panther opened and a bandaged face looked behind his tank, seeing the dozen tanks chasing him.

Peter sighed. “What’s ahead of us? We should almost be out of the forest now.”

“I see light up ahead!” cried his driver. “Should we just keep going and do ‘that’?”

“[Ja!] Just drive straight ahead!”

“[Jawohl!]” the Panther crashed through the trees into the open air and kept driving straight forward. And to Uszka and to the shock of everyone watching, they drove straight off the cliffside.

“Stop, stop!” Uszka’s Nashorn came to a grinding halt, just barely stopping itself from going over the cliff as well. It was quite some distance to the ground. Luckily, no one else fell. Yet. There was the sound of a gun being fired and the cliff suddenly collapsed beneath the Nashorn and a few of the Light Tanks, sending them and rubble to the bottom. When everything settled down again, Uszka peaked out from beneath the carbon tarp, and saw the smoking 75mm barrel of the Panther.  _ These guys are insane. Eisenherz shoots Shizuka, then he knocks out Jakja, and now this kid, he drives straight off a cliff and shoots it out not even five seconds later. What in the world... _

“[Let’s regroup with the others once we’re done here.]” Peter commanded in German.

“[Jawohl!]”

“Oh Hans, you're here? I thought…” Miho said confused as the German lieutenant slapped her on the back, while he smiled.

“My Sturmwind’s suspension isn’t doing so good, so I pulled out of this match. He’s something isn’t he?”

“You mean...Faber? Of course.” Maho replied.

“No not Faber, we all know he’s strong.” The Nishizumi sisters cocked their eyebrows. “I meant Peter, you saw that stunt just now, right?”

Miho suddenly remembered who Hans was talking about. “You mean the commander of one of the Panthers? The bandaged one?”

“[Ja.] He’s quite good, at age 15 he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht and at 16 he had a respectable reputation as a Panther commander. What?” Hans stared at the faces of everyone gathered. They all had faces of surprise and shock.

“Wait...he’s sixteen?” Kay sounded dumbfounded.

Maho looked into the air for a moment. “I thought so...me and Erika met him some time back in the woods and he isn’t much taller than me or her, so I imagined he must be young.”

“Yes, at age 16 and he already has a sizable amount of kills to his name. Impressive isn’t he?”

Miho stared at Hans. “That’s just tragic. He’s barely older than any of us here.”

Hans sighed dejectedly. “Your right, I honestly think he’s too young, and Faber thinks so too. He said to me that Peter should’ve never been in the Wehrmacht or expressed interest in it in the first place. Oh well, Peter says he’s okay and everything anyways…” Hans trailed off. “Still, driving off a cliff is pretty crazy, and on the subject of Peter being young, he still acts like it.” Maho laughed, remembering how flustered and confused Peter was when she had met the kid.

“I could tell.”

Other than Faber’s ruthless tactics and Peter’s absurd stunt, the only other thing of note that occurred was Lennard’s Tiger I taking way too many hits all at once, when it was cornered in a forest by several of the Marders, but angling it’s armor it deflected most of the shells, except for one which damaged the turret ring, but by that time most of the Marders had been defeated and Peter arrived as back up. So in the end…”The Stahlratts have eliminated every Bonple tank, and thus they win!” the referee cried out. The Germans regrouped and cheered to their victory, while Jakja finally awoke to everyone’s great relief.

A bandage wrapped around her head, Jakja approached Faber, and to his surprise she held out her hand. “It was ballsy of you to bury my comrades and shoot while I was atop the rubble, but I still acknowledge your skill. Shall we shake on it?”

Faber broke a simple smile. “Of course.” and he shook her hand firmly. When Shizuka walked up as well, her arms wrapped in bandages like a mummy, Faber just shot her a look. “Technically it was your strategy to block my gun with yourself so I’m not apologizing.”

“Oh come on!” Rin yelled.


	27. Pravda and the Bolsheviks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pravda recruits some help

“Us? Do that tank sport of yours? I’m good…” Willy told Kay off. “I’m not interested in shooting kids.”

“It’s not like that, we’ll be in tanks and everything!” Naomi and Alisa just sighed and looked on as their commander tried to convince Willy to join them in Sensha-do. “Besides you know about safe-proofing and everything, right?”

“Yeah I heard ya the first time girly, but I’m not interested.” Willy stalked off with Nathan and Daniel at his flanks.

“Geez what’s up with him?” Kay said as Hans suddenly clapped her shoulder.

“I do have a guess but I don’t think it’s very good...Either way, just leave the American alone. Maybe you could try convincing those Bolsheviks, hah!”

Katyusha’s ears perked up from atop Nonna’s shoulders.  _ That sounds like a good idea...hehehe… _

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, [malyshka.]”

“Don’t call me that!” Katyusha piped up.

“Hah. Well, what do you want?” Nikolay asked as he and his men sat in a circle taking shots of vodka. Just a minute or two ago, the two were joined by Nonna, Klara, and most importantly, Katyusha.

Katyusha put a hand on her chest in pride. “We have an upcoming match against a number of other schools all at once, and I want  your help! The only problem is if your commander would approve of it…”

“Sure, we’ll help.” Niko said as he chugged a bit of vodka straight from one of his many bottles. “And Willy doesn’t really care, most he can do is just scold us.” the Soviet tanker brushed off.

Klara spoke up. “But, Katyusha what tanks will they use? Considering the size of the forces allowed in our joint match we won’t be able to spare enough tanks for all of them.”

“Hm, your right Klara. There's…” Katyusha paused to count all the Russians. “About 18 of you all, and Katyusha isn’t sure if she has the tanks to spare at the moment.”

“We’ll just use our own tanks then!” Nikolay triumphed. “We have the UHLS Model 3, a very powerful tank, we’ve used them to plow through the German defenses like they're made of snow. Willy won’t care, he’ll just scold us for using fuel but you girls have fuel. When is this, [malyshka], when is the fight?” the rest of the Russians nodded eagerly.

Katyusha smiled broadly. “It’s tomorrow, at 6PM sharp. Thanks for your support, [товарищ.]”

The next day, on the Kiev ship, the two schools of the teams met each other just as the sun was beginning to set, snow still piled thickly around the entirety of Kiev. Due to the number of schools participating, the schools were split up into two teams. On Team one, was Pravda, Ooarai, and Chi-Ha-Tan. On Team two, was Kuromorimine, Saunders, and Jatkosota. The battle was in flag tank style, while the battle itself would end at 6PM the next day if nobody had won. The battle began with the two teams charging each other head on, which led to Kuromorimine splitting up to avoid destruction of their flag tanks. What made the match truly interesting is that across the three schools for each team was a flag tank for each, meaning if one team wanted to achieve victory they would have to destroy three flag tanks first. As night began to fall, the schools began to set up encampments. Pravda set themselves up in an old snow covered town, which even though it was abandoned and wrecked, was still a good shelter, with Ooarai sharing the town. Unsurprisingly, in the first charge a large number of Chi-Ha-Tan’s tanks were taken out, so now there were only 8 left from the 30 Nishi had brought. Katyusha and Miho sat in the town’s church tower, while Nishi lamented her not being able to reign in her comrades. “Katyusha-san...You mentioned earlier you had a secret weapon, but what is it?”

Katyusha smiled before she pulled out a transceiver from a pocket in her jacket. She clicked a button and said into it, “Comrade Niko, do you remember what Katyusha’s 3-step-plan is for you?”

A male voice crackled in response. “Of course Katyusha! Men, what is [tovarishch] Katyusha’s 3-step-plan? Step 1?”

“Seize the hills!”

“Step 2?”

“Root out the enemy!”

“Step 3!?”

“Rain fire!”

“Hey ‘Helmet-chan’ can you get the rations out while we light the fires?” Kay called out to Alisa’s loader.

Alisa’s loader, or “Helmet-chan” she was known as due to wearing a helmet 24/7, sighed at her nickname.  _ My name’s Tess though… _ ”Yeah, sure. Let me go get ‘em.” Tess hopped from the turret of Alisa’s M4A1 (76) Sherman and began to unload the rations kept in the supply boxes strapped to various parts of the tank, and when she opened the boxes, unsurprisingly it was filled with food like burgers and fries. Grabbing a burger for herself, she passed the box to the closest girl who passed it on a so forth. They were beginning to unload and create an encampment at a small abandoned village. It had several small houses, which were in good condition, and a church with a tall tower, where Naomi and Alisa were scanning the area with binoculars.

Kay called up to her vice-commanders, “Hey, you see anything up there?”

“I’m afraid not. We’ve all dug in for the night.”

Alisa poked her head from the tower to look down at Kay. “Kay, can you keep an eye on Jatkosota? We  are sharing camps together and they’re known to steal stuff.”

“Well…”

A familiar voice strummed her kantele. “Don’t worry about it. We don’t steal from our allies.” Mika said enigmatically. Mikko and Aki were seen nabbing burgers and fries faster than anyone. Mixed in with the dozens of Shermans fielded by Saunders were several Soviet tanks which seemed to have been hastily colored snow white over a familiar olive green. Even the Jatkosota emblem looked hastily put over a red one. Mika herself was playing her kantele gracefully atop her BT-42, a Finnish conversion tank of the Soviet BT-7 with a bigger gun. As there were the Soviet and German tanks used by Jatkosota mixed in with the Sherman variants, there were Jatkosota students mixed in with the Saunders students.

Tess just grinned nervously.  _ I hear when they say “borrowed” it really just means stole… _ Tess bent over to pick up a burger, just as Kay began to sing something. The wind was howling slightly, there was the crunch of snow beneath dozens of feet, and Mika’s kantele. But a new sound joined the smorgasbord of sounds. From the hills, a new howling sound came screaming into the night, Tess and countless others froze what they were doing. Tess looked to the sky, where the sound was coming from and her breath caught in her throat. Cutting through the sky were dozens of yellow projectiles, burning brightly like flares, and they were headed straight for their base. 

Tess’ heart began to race when she heard Naomi scream. “Incoming rockets!” Naomi grabbed Alisa around the waist and jumped down the church tower, sliding down the sides of the church’s tiled roof before crashing into the snowy ground. Tess watched as Kay and nearly everyone else who wasn’t frozen in fear dive for their tanks, hastily climbing inside to escape the incoming barrage.

“Tess!” Tess heard Alisa scream, snapping her out of her trance. Tess dove beneath the M4A1 (76) just as a great crashing sound came around her. Around them all. Pinned beneath the ground and the steel beast, she felt utterly trapped as the dark village was lit up with explosions. She heard some girls scream, either in fear or pain as the wailing of the rockets continued. Tess didn’t know how long it was until the screaming and wailing of the rockets stopped, but when it did, she felt utterly empty at the silence. No sound of engines or fires, no girls wailing or crying. When Tess finally crawled out from underneath the M4A1 (76), she felt petrified to the core at what she saw. The quaint village, where they had been camping, was no more than a pile of rubble now, the only building left standing was the church. Several of the tanks were buried underneath the rubble of the stone and wood houses, only their turrets shown left. Anyone who was coming out of hiding froze as well. It was utter silence that was only filled by the wind.

Maho sat in the turret of her Tiger 1, viewing the landscape. For the night, they decided to simply camp out in a small grove of frosted over trees, and already there was a bustling encampment. “Commander, here.” Maho turned and saw Erika climbing into the turret, a bowl of soup in her hand. She was gesturing for Maho to take the bowl.

“Oh, thank you, Erika.” Maho took the bowl and took a sip. It was chicken broth with bits of finely shredded chicken floating around in it. “Did Saunders pick up on the radio yet?”

Erika shook her head. “Not yet, they’ve been radio silent for the past hour or so. If you ask me, I bet they’re just partying or something.” Erika added at the end with disdain.

“No, I don’t think that’s it. I heard something just earlier, but it didn’t sound like a tank or anything…”

In one of the tents set up was a quick radio area. Sitting on folding tables Kuromorimine had brought with them, about six Kuromorimine uniformed girls were working the radios, checking the signals and trying to pick up on anything. Koume was among them, checking the Saunders signal when Maho walked into the tent. “Did you get a response from Saunders and Jatkosota yet?”

“Not yet commander.” Just as one of the girls finished her answer, Koume’s radio suddenly buzzed to life with a girl's voice coming through.

“Hello!? Maho, are you there?” Kay’s voice crackled.

Maho grabbed the microphone and put on a pair of headphones to listen. “We’re here. What’s going on?”

Kay sounded distressed, but the next message sent Maho’s heart going. “Maho, they have rockets, they’ve bombed the village we were staying at!”

“What...Are there any injuries?”

“We’re all fine, a lot of us have scratches and bruises but nothing to worry about. None of our tanks have been taken out either, nor have any been taken out from Jatkosota. It’s gonna be cold though, only this little church is left…Maho, you should start moving, before Pravda blows you up too.”

Maho bit her lip. “I’ll see what I can do. I hope things are going well for you and we can regroup.” Maho put down the microphone and headphones before she walked out of the tent and straight into Erika. “Sorry, right Erika, I need you to tell everyone to get ready at a moment’s notice.”

“How come? Did Kay tell you something?”

Maho scanned the skies. “Apparently Katyusha got herself some rocket artillery, and Kay says the village they and Jatkosota were staying at was completely destroyed by them. Tell everyone to go ahead and sleep if they need to, but we have to be able to move at a moment’s notice. Station sentries as well, we can’t be ambushed in our sleep.”

Erika nodded. “Roger that, commander.” Erika did a brief salute before she ran off. Maho could hear her telling someone to get ready to move at a moment’s notice if rocket’s began to light up the sky. It was Maho’s hope that wouldn’t happen.

Kay shivered as a wind blew through the holes in the church’s walls. The church was small, but it was large enough to fit a couple of tanks in. The door was completely blown away by time, so the Sherman’s and Jatkosota tanks created a line across it, before they set up camp inside the church, lighting some fires and heating up food. In the church tower above, Alisa and Naomi were back to scanning the snow covered fields and hills, but they weren’t just looking for Pravda T-34s. Now they were looking for whatever had attacked with those rockets. The rockets had devastated the village, leaving only the church remaining, so the Jatkosota and Saunders students were forced to squeeze in to avoid the fierce winds. Fortunately, the night passed uneventfully and Kay managed to get some sleep, although the winds were what woke her.

“Jesus it’s cold now…” Kay felt an arm tap her shoulder and looked up to see Tess hand her a burger, which was hot from being warmed over a fire. “Thanks Helmet-chan.”

Tess sighed. “Kay, why do you and everyone keep calling me that? It’s weird.”

“Oh come on, it’s funny! Besides, it’s because you're always wearing that helmet anyways. How’s Alisa and Naomi? They were up on the tower all night?”

“Yeah, they were, but…” Tess began to giggle. “When I checked on them I found them cuddled together. I think they decided that was the best way to heat up huh?”

“Hold on, I gotta see this.” Kay jumped up, throwing off her blanket. She climbed up the spiraling stairs to the tower, and when she opened the attic trap door to the roof and peeked into the tower, she saw the two cuddled together, just as Tess had said. Naomi was holding Alisa around the shoulders, the latter having her head tucked into Naomi’s chest while laying right on top of her. Kay began to giggle before she fully chortled. “Morning you two!” she shouted with enthusiasm.

Naomi and Alisa snapped awake and when they saw their commander laughing at them, they sprung apart instantly, red in the faces. “K-Kay, this isn’t what it looks like!” Alisa blabbered, and Kay began to laugh even harder. “Kay, calm down, before-”

“Whoops!” Kay’s footing slipped and she went tumbling down the side of the roof before landing in a pile of fresh snow. “You know what’s weird you two? There’s still snow everywhere, but isn’t it pretty warm everywhere else?”

Naomi put a hand on her forehead, and sighed. “Your right, Kay. Your right…”

In no time at all, Saunders and Jatkosota were rolling off to find their enemies and secure a win for themselves. “Commander Kay, it’s Kuromorimine up ahead!” One of the commanders of the Shermans said through her radio.

“Great! Tell Maho we’re going on a hunt!” The three schools drew near.

Maho climbed out of her Tiger to talk to Kay on foot. “So we’re going to draw out Pravda with our flag tanks?”

“Yeah, and then we’ll ambush ‘em!”

But Maho was smarter than that. “Kay, sorry to say this but Katyusha may be overconfident, but she’s no idiot, a plan like that would be too obvious. Luckily we found where Pravda and Ooarai are. We just need to take out their flag tanks next. We’ll charge their encampments.”

“Nishizumi-style eh? Alright then,” The two commanders climbed back into their respective tanks. “Advance!” The tanks roared to life again and began to go down the road, right towards the town where Pravda, Ooarai, and the rest of Chi-Ha-Tan encamped.

Yukari climbed one of the town’s towers and put a pair of binoculars to her eyes. Far off in the distance was a rising cloud of dust and snow, heading for them. Taking out a transceiver, she flicked the button. “We’ve got company! It’s Team 2, and they’re all coming for us!”

“Roger that, Akiyama.” Katyusha was sitting in her T-34/85’s cupola, watching the American, German, and “borrowed” Soviet tanks draw near to where her own tanks were hidden in the snow, ready to strike.  _ The new tanks we’ve got should be big leg up over Kuromorimine! _ The tanks finally came into range, and Katyusha radioed, “Fire!” Snow was thrown up as the buried T-34/76s and T-34/85s lit up the advancing forces. A few Shermans were cut down, popping up their white flags, but it was a small number compared to the amount of Saunders tanks there were. The forces of Kuromorimine shrugged off the shells in their late-war German heavy tanks. That is until a 152mm shell crashed into one of the Tiger IIs, throwing it backwards as the white flag popped up.

“We’re out of the fight, commander!” The defeated Tiger II radioed to Maho.

Maho raised binoculars to her eyes and saw Pravda’s new weapon. Or rather, weapons. Sitting in the middle of the road, acting as roadblocks were three new tanks. Or at least two of them were new. In the middle was an ISU-152 tank destroyer, it’s massive 152mm barrel left smoking from the shell it just threw out. Flanking it’s left and right sides were IS-3 Heavy tanks, the iconic pike nose shape sticking out like a nail in wood. “Return fire!” The tanks of Team 2 opened up, raining down against the Soviet tank wall. Then the howling began. From the snowy hills a whirling and howling sound erupted into everyone’s ears. Several girls from Saunders and Jatkosota screamed in terror at the sound, the same one that had brought destruction to their encampment. Raining down from the sky, the rockets began to explode around the forces of Team 2. But that was what Maho wanted. “Jatkosota, attack their rocket launchers before they move!”

“Roger that.” Mika said into her radio. Drawing away from the spearhead of Saunders and Kuromorimine, Mika’s BT-42 veered off to the left, where they had seen the snow suddenly kick up high into the air. Following her were the rest of the Jatkosota tanks, which consisted of a Panzer IV Ausf J, a Stug III, or Sturmi, a T-34/85 and a BT-7. Six tanks in total for Jatkosota. Despite the small numbers, Mika had faith in her fellow tankers. A few of the Pravda tanks tried shooting them down, but they dodged and weaved and escaped into the hills to hunt for their target. The whirling sound of the rockets, which had ceased, erupted again launching dozens of rockets into the Saunders Kuromorimine formation. “There.” Mika pointed out a hill surrounded by flat ground on all sides, and sitting atop it was a mysterious vehicle.

“What is that...thing?” Aki said as she stepped up on a block of wood to see into the gun sight. Atop the hill was a very large tank, it’s forest green chassis sticking out to them. What intrigued them the most was it’s four turrets, all of which carried an absurd amount of rocket launchers on each one. Aki watched as an ushanka clad head poked itself out from the tank, before going back in, and the beast roared to life. With great speed for its size and dimensions it turned around and descended the hill, just as it came under fire from the Jatkosota tanks. All the shells did nothing against it, but the Finnish girls kept charging towards it. One of the guns lit up and the BT-7 was struck down by a 76mm AT shell, it’s white flag popping up. In the BT-42, Mika peered out a vision sight to see the flank of the beast, and as they drove incredibly close to it, Mika read a steel nameplate that said, “UHLS Model 3 V2” The gun of the BT-42 turned and fired a shot directly into its side, but it was angled too much and the shell bounced off.

Mika strummed her kantele. “It seems Pravda has brought a foreign beast into this fight.” Mika put a hand to the radio around her throat. “It’s armor is thick on the sides and front. Try to get around to it’s rear and get a shot off at point blank.” Wordlessly the remaining Finnish tanks began to maneuver around to the rear when a volley from all four guns took out the Stug III and Panzer IV J. Already it was up to the BT-42 and the T-34/85 entirely to take out the UHLS Model 3. The beast began to rotate to face it’s side armor to the BT-42 and T-34/85 as they began to get around to it’s rear, it’s guns blazing. The BT-42, with Mikko as the driver, dodged the shells expertly, while the unfortunate Finnish T-34 caught a shell untracking it on the left side. It began to drive away to the other hills, and finally it’s rear was exposed, a rear heavily covered in pipes which spat an unbelievable amount of smoke. “Aki, when we’re at point blank, then fire. We have to make sure we hit.”

“Alright Mika!”

The rearmost gun of the UHLS fired its shell, and to the shock of it’s Russian gunner, it hit the T-34 instead of the BT-42, the latter of which had dodged behind. “Niko, the Finnish are getting to our rear!”

Niko howled like a raging bear. “[Cyka! Idi nahui!]” he swore. The BT-42 crashed into the rear of the UHLS and fired it’s 114mm shell right into the rear. A column of smoke and fire erupted from it, and the UHLS fell silent, a white flag popping up from it’s rear.

Mika radioed her comrades. “We’ve defeated the Pravda beast. No more howling from it.”

“Acknowledged, good work!” Maho replied as her Tiger I crawled through the streets, into the massive, wide open plaza of the town. Coming to a stop the Tiger fired it’s 88mm shell into a T-34/76, taking it out. A T-34/85 tried to futilely destroy the Tiger but the shell went into the thick gun mantlet before the Tiger destroyed the next T-34. She watched as a Sherman took some fire and it’s white flag popped up before another Sherman, Kay’s Sherman, pushed through, this time absorbing the shells and firing it’s 76mm gun into the Pravda T-34s which were bombarding it’s thick frontal armor.

“Haha, this is a Sherman Jumbo! Good luck penetrating us!” Kay whooped in triumph. “Woohoo, these new Sherman variants are doing wonders for us!” On the outskirts of the town, Naomi’s Sherman VC Firefly had taken up a firing position on the hill, sniping any Pravda tanks attempting to flee the assault. Naomi pulled the trigger and a Pravda KV-1 was cut down from quite the range. On the other side of the town, Alisa’s M4A1 (76) and several M4A3E8 Easy Eight Shermans did the same, acting as a roadblock for Pravda while Kuromorimine assaulted the town with some of their lighter vehicles, which were Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs. The heavier tanks fielded by Kuromorimine sat alongside the Shermans of Saunders, acting as a blockade. Having eliminated Katyusha and her blockade, the only flag tank left was the Panzer IV H of Ooarai.

“Ooarai is escaping!” Maho and Kay heard one of their commanders shout over the radio of gunfire and tank engines. Sangou, the bespectacled commander of a Panzer III, watched as the remaining Ooarai tanks, the Panzer IV H flag tank, the Type 89 and their Porsche Tiger broke through the gap in the encirclement and drove off into the snowy hills. The rest of the team had been taken out, and the Stug III and M3 Lee that were still in the fight were holding off the Kuromorimine and Saunders assault in a last stand. “They’re heading for a village with a large barnhouse, over in A-5!”

“Roger that, everyone, sweep up and pursue!” Kay grinned.  _ A chase eh? _

Finally, the Panzer IV H, Type 89, and Tiger (P) came to a halt at the decrepit village. The only building left standing was a large snow covered barn, which too looked decrepit. Oddly the doors of the barn were closed shut.  _ That’s weird... _ Miho looked at the black device held in her hand. It was the transceiver Katyusha had used to call down her namesake rockets on their camping enemies.  _ And what’s even weirder is what Katyusha told me before the attack began. _

Just an hour ago, Katyusha had told her this, and this exactly: “If we’re overrun, there is a barn at sector A-5. Use this transceiver and say that comrade Katyusha is calling or whatever you need to do, and our secret weapon will come out of hiding. Katyusha has it all planned out!”

Miho was hesitant to use the transceiver. After all, it did launch rockets into the Saunders camp while they were off their guard completely, but Miho threw that aside as she witnessed the forces of Saunders, Kuromorimine, and Jatsoka approach in the distance, completely undeterred by the losses they suffered in the initial assault of the town. Miho flicked on the transceiver. “C-comrade Katyusha is calling you!”

No response.

The Shermans and German Heavy tanks arrived, with the beaten BT-42 taking a stop alongside them. “Alright, we caught ya! You're surrounded now Miho!” Kay cried in triumph from her Sherman Jumbo. Everyone knew how hopeless the situation was. Nothing but snow and hills for miles, and with nearly thirty tanks against them, there was no way Miho would win with only three. That was when the transceiver buzzed to life.

“[Roger that, Nishizumi.]” a deep voice said in Russian. There was a great cracking and splintering of wood as a massive shell suddenly flew from the barn’s wall, striking a Tiger II and sending it’s white flag up. More shells erupted from the barn before Team 2 began to return fire. The barn collapsed, and the most powerful engine anyone had ever heard roared like a beast ready to fight. Black smoke began to pour from the dust and snow as a massive tank took form. It was moving forwards, shrugging off all the shells thrown at it, and to Miho, it was a completely foreign tank, but to Yukari, she squealed in recognition.

“It’s one of the UHLS tanks!” It’s forest green paint and size being its biggest point, the five turreted beast that was the UHLS Model 3 V1 advanced towards the Shermans and German tanks. Two 76mm guns were its outermost, two 30mm autocannons nearest towards the center and in the center and raised above all the others, a massive 105mm cannon, with all of the turrets sporting rocket launchers held over the top. The girls from Ooarai watched in shocked silence as a 128mm shell from the Kuromorimine Jagdtiger flew straight towards the triangular glacis of the UHLS Model 3, and bounced straight off of it. All the while, the 105mm gun and 76mm guns facing Team 2 were lighting up targets one after the other. Then the rocket launchers screamed as their deadly armament was unleashed. Maho saw one zip right by her Tiger and hit a Panther dead on, raising it’s white flag.

“Commander, what do we do!” Maho heard Koume call into her radio.

“Everyone retreat, we can’t damage this thing!”

“I bet we can if we get the flanks!” Kay yelled over the absolutely thunderous gunfire. Over on a hill not far away, Naomi pulled the trigger and could only gape as the shell of the QF17 hit the side of the 105mm’s turret, but it bounced off. The 105mm turned to face her and as Naomi tried to tell her driver to reverse, a 105mm shell slammed into the gun mantlet, taking Naomi out of the match. “Nevermind!”

With the UHLS’ appearance, it had taken out about 10 tanks, one of which was Mika’s BT-42, where in this case, Mikko couldn’t dodge all the HEAT Rockets sent her way. Miho and the rest of her team just watched in awe as the UHLS singlehandedly forced back so many tanks and not a dent in it’s armor. The transceiver buzzed. “We’ll chase these invaders off, uraaa!”

“URAAAAA!” Miho felt deafened at the sound, even if it was coming from a pocket sized radio. Miho turned to Yukari, who was sticking herself out of the Panzer IVs right turret hatch. “Yukari-san, what do you know about it? The soldiers never told us about their own tanks much less...that.”

Yukari looked at her commander somewhat sheepishly. “Well...I don’t know much about the UHLS either, I just found it while...snooping around. Only one of them wasn’t covered by a tarp so I only saw one of them...You still wanna hear about it? Alright, so the one that was uncovered had the nameplate ‘UHLS Model 1’ so I assume the one out there,” Yukari pointed towards the UHLS Model 3 V1, which was still wreaking havoc on the Saunders and Kuromorimine forces. “Is another model or variant of the UHLS. The one I saw was very similar though, just without the rockets. It had one large 105mm gun raised over the rest, two 76mm guns on the outer parts, and two 30mm autocannons towards the center. My analysis so far is that the UHLS is some sort of break through ultra-heavy tank, with a really powerful engine and thick armor.”

“...I see, thanks Yukari-san.” The Jagdtiger was dead, the white flag popped out while it was stuck in the snow. And it was only one of many tanks the Russian operated UHLS would crush.

“God damn it, I knew something was up when I saw those Russian girls!” Willy stormed his way to where several spectators watched the match with great interest, mainly at the new mysterious tank being used by Pravda. Seeing the UHLS Model 3 on screen only confirmed his suspicions. “For god’s sake those Bolsheviks can’t give me a break for five seconds!” The spectators shot him odd looks, while accompanying Willy was Daniel and Nathan, who smiled nervously.

“Now, now, restlessness can make people do brash things. Isn’t that right, Rosehip?” Darjeeling turned to the commander of her Crusader squadron.

Rosehip just giggled nervously and smiled. “Of course, Darjeeling!”

Assam took a glance at the three Americans and just smiled.  _ I’ve gotta see what those tanks of theirs are.  _ “Since you're here, why don’t you stay and watch? It’s quite cold too, and we have tea.”

Nathan took a glance at the girls from St. Glorianas, his eyes magnified slightly by the pilot's goggles that were now around his eyes. “What kind of tea? I mean, I prefer coffee but it sure is cold here, huh?” he said to them. Willy was going to scold him for getting distracted but Nathan was already marching up to the higher ground they had where they had set up an area to watch and eat snacks. Willy grunted and followed, taking a bit longer than Daniel who practically bounded up to where the British(but actually Japanese) girls were sitting. A fellow student wearing the blue sweater of St. Glorianas put three chairs out for the men before bowing, her brown braid bouncing as she did so.

The same girl grabbed a pot with tea and poured some out into three plain white mugs, which elicited a slight chuckle which she couldn’t tell was amusement or disdain from Daniel. “We have Russian Tea, if that’s good.”

“Almost anything good on a cold day, I can tell you that.” Nathan gratefully took his mug before the girl could add any milk or sugar and took a sip. “I like to drink things black.” he said when he saw Darjeeling raise an eyebrow.

Darjeeling watched the screen which broadcast the battle. On the screen it showed that the Bolshevik rampage of the UHLS Model 3 had taken out many of the Shermans and German Heavy on Team 2, when it suddenly came to an abrupt stop. The engines sputtered before it’s Russian commander heaved himself from the 105mm turret, only to see the engine was perfectly fine, before the man seemed to swear to himself. “It seems the UHLS uses lots of fuel, hm?”

Willy drank his Russian tea, which had a balance of milk and sugar in it. He oddly found himself smiling at it’s taste despite his rather high preference for other such hot drinks. “How’d you tell?”

“Well, I’ve seen many tanks run out of fuel in the middle of a battle, so I have some experience you could say.” she said in her composed and nonchalant voice.

Daniel laughed at Darjeeling’s analysis. “Spot on. The UHLS uses so much fuel we have to carry entire oil barrels with us. It ain’t fun I can tell ya that.” Daniel watched on the massive screen as the UHLS sputtered again. But they were still out of fuel. “Ya think Niklav forgot about the gas?” Unfortunately for Niklav, that was exactly what he was struggling with, he forgot all of the spare fuel at the barn, which he had unloaded from the tank’s interior so Niko could use some if he got back, which he never did. Willy winced as the Jagdtiger suddenly shot out from it’s spot in the snow and fired a killing shot into the rear of the UHLS Model 3, putting an end to it’s rampage, which had taken out 26 tanks, leaving only the Saunders flag tank, Alisa’s M4A1(76), Erika’s Tiger II, and Koume’s Panther. As the Jagdtiger turned around on its treads, everyone saw what Maho had done. Earlier in the battle, she had rushed forward to try and get a shot into the UHLS’ rear, when the 76mm gun lit up her Tiger, taking it out to the shock of all watching. When that happened, she was very close to the Jagdtiger which had been taking hits up to that point, allowing her to plant a fake white flag on the Jagtiger’s roof, deceiving Niklav and his gunners into thinking they had killed the Jagdtiger at last.

“All War is deception. Have you heard of that one?” Darjeeling took a sip of her tea. She looked to her loader, expecting an answer.

“‘Sun Tzu, The Art of War’.” Daniel said unexpectedly, and Pekoe’s face seemingly went into one of shock. “That’s a no brainer, ain’t it?” Daniel turned over to his cousins, “Isn’t grandpa Wilson always bugging us to read that thing?”

“He was? I always tuned out that old man.” Nathan took a good drain of his tea. “He’d never shut up about the Civil War, he would.”

“Well it’s still good to listen a little bit ain’t it?”

Darjeeling laughed at their conversation, before turning to Orange Pekoe. “O-Orange Pekoe? Are you ok?” she saw the absolutely horrified and shocked expression on her face. “Pekoe? Please snap out of it.”

It took a bit of time, at which point the three Americans had fully exhausted their conversation about their grandpa Wilson. “S-Sorry, Darjeeling. I just didn’t think someone like him would read a book like  _ The Art of War _ .”

“We'll not always wastin’ our time hunting alligators. Of course we read lots, we got a whole library on the family property.” Daniel was about to say more when he was cut off by the announcement that blared. “Team 1s flag tanks have all been eliminated, therefore Team 2 wins the match!” Cheers erupted from the stands. Darjeeling and the rest of the girls from St. Glorianas clapped. The Americans looked around a bit before they clapped as well.

Several minutes later, as Darjeeling and her entourage were walking down to greet Ooarai, the Sensha-do commander let out one long sigh. “What is it, Darjeeling?” Assam asked her long time friend.

“Sorry, it’s just that...I think those ‘yankees’ is one of the reasons why I feel so weird about Kay and the rest of Saunders. So loud and energetic…”

“Like me!” and before anyone could stop her, Rosehip had sped off to where the Ooarai Panzer IV was sitting, tripping and flopping into the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wanna read more about the UHLS, read here:  
> https://the-wundermotor-info-vault.fandom.com/wiki/The_UHLS_Tank  
> However, it contains spoilers regarding what some of the other UHLS Models look like, so watch out.


	28. The Photo Album

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being completely unrelated to the previous chapter nor being relevant to the plot, we got some stuff that's more or less filler.

Miho walked around the Zuikaku, a salty breeze picking up her hair.  _ Sure is nice to get a break from all the battles... _ When she tripped over something on the ground and nearly face planted if she hadn’t stuck out her arms last second. “What the…” Miho found herself staring at a dirty book made of black leather, and bound together by rough string. She picked it up gingerly, and when she saw the words written on it her heart jumped.  _ Stahlratts, 1945-Present. _

“So, Miporin, you’re saying you found a photo album that belongs to Faber and his crew?” Saori looked at the book. It was quite decrepit looking, it’s cover was stained in multiple ways, the leather was rough, and it even looked burnt by what Saori could only guess were bombs and other weapons. On the front of the book underneath the title was an emblem that depicted a rat with chains crossing over it in an x shape. “Should we give it back?”

“Well…”

“Hey Nishizumi-dono! Saori~! What’s that?” Yukari suddenly jumped up to the two from behind. They were in the Ooarai tank hanger, sitting at a table with the photo album in the center. When Yukari saw the book and it’s title her eyes glowed. “Ooh, we should look into it! We could see all sorts of good info in there!”

“But, Yukari-san it’s private isn’t it? We should-”

Suddenly Otto walked into the hanger, looking around. “Oh, you three, have you seen a black photo album anywhere? I forgot it was in my satchel and I ended up going for a walk. I must’ve dropped it…”

Saori grabbed the photo album and hid it behind her back. “Nope, haven’t seen it!”

“Alright then, tell me if you see it right? There’s some really messed up photos in there, heheh.” Otto walked off scratching his head, and the three girls sighed in relief.

“Well, I guess there’s no harm done if we take a look then…” Miho sighed, taking the book from Saori’s hands and opening its cover. The first page was blank, but on the back of that one and on the next page were photos, two large ones per page. All of them were in black and white but the resolution was good, surprisingly. The first photo depicted Faber and all of his men, lined up. Faber himself was at the front of the group, in his signature outfit. Miho recognized Ralph, Clemmons, Otto, Eric, Konrad, Carl, Peter, who looked nervous, and Lennard, stoic looking as ever. The second photo below the first had a picture of Peter, who was standing with his left leg on top of an ammo box. He was wearing an odd looking stahlhelm with an MP40 strapped across his chest. “I thought Otto said there were some messed up photos in here though…”

“Maybe they're in the back?” Yukari took the photo album and quickly flipped through it, taking a stop every now and then to see the photos. Most of them were just of Faber and his men, lined up, although one photo in particular caught Yukari’s eye. It was Faber, but he wasn’t wearing his gloves, and his hand looked...odd. Yukari shrugged it off, and flipped through until she came to the end, which was completely blank. “There’s nothing here.”

“Really?” Sasori took the book and when she reached the back of the book, the leather cover, she saw something. “Wait, look, there’s some photos taped here!” On the rough leather were a number of photos taped backwards, so no one could see them. Saori carefully peeled them off, and the very first photo she saw made her heart stop for a moment. The very first photo was of Faber and all his men, standing in front of something very large. The picture was taken at an angle, so Saori could see all their faces, and they were all doing the Nazi Salute, to the man who created it, Adolf Hitler. “Jesus…” Saori looked at the next photo. It was of Faber having the Grand Cross pinned to his uniform by HItler, but what was the most odd was his eyes. He didn’t seem proud or joyous at receiving the award. Rather, he seemed to look at Hitler with loathing.

Yukari gulped, remembering what Faber said to her about how he felt about Hitler and Nazis. “Mister Eisenherz said...he said to me that he hates Nazis. So I guess he’s forced to pretend to be one.” The next photo depicted a shorter person standing over a field that was filled with Shermans and Churchill tanks, all of which looked utterly destroyed. Next to that person was a Panther, and the three girls realized it must’ve been Peter. Peter really wasn’t tall after all. At Peter’s feet was a dead soldier, and based on the casings in the grass, he had shot the man himself.

Miho winced, took the photos and taped them back in place. “We have to return this, we can’t look.” Just as Miho stood up with the album, Otto returned, this time flanked by Peter and Hans.

“So, you did have it?” Otto raised an eyebrow.

“S-sorry! We got curious and-”

Otto just waved it off. “It’s alright, people like to see things...You saw the photos taped to the back?” It was more of a statement, based on the faces the three Anglerfish girls were making.

Peter tried to smile. “We’re...not proud of those photos, to say the least. Most of them were taken for propaganda.”

Hans took back the photo album, and flipped it open. “Yeah, they did. Like little Peter said,”

“D-don’t call me that!”

“We’re not very proud of them. Well, except for a few. Like this one.” Hans handed them a photo. It was of him sitting in a wheelchair, saluting Erwin Rommel. But not the Nazi way, with his hand crossed over his heart. In the background was the Eiffel Tower. “The ones we aren’t proud of are the ones that depict us as Nazis, really. By the way, did you know those Allied Soldiers have an album too? They lost it.”

“Eh?” Miho tipped her head.


	29. Good ol' Southern Music

Willy laughed at a joke Kay told him before he took a bit of a hamburger. Just outside the Saunders tank hanger, WIlly and his ten other family members were feasting with the Saunders Sensha-do team. Willy took a sip of soda when he accidentally knocked over the case he carried his fiddle in. “Hey that reminds me!” The girls looked up at Willy. “Who wants to hear us sing!?” Willy was met with a tumultuous response to sing. His siblings and cousins were elated that they could sing. Taking out their instruments, they spoke in English for a song to sing and finally landed on a good one. 

“[I came to town, the other night, I heard the noise. I saw the fight, the watchman he was running around, he was runnin’ around, cryin’ Old Dan tucker’s come to town. Now get out the way, now get out the way! Get out the Ol’ Dan Tucker, you’re too late to get your supper!]” Nathan sang, the accompanying music playing loudly and merrily. Many of the Saunders girls joined in the singing whenever the chorus of Ol’ Dan Tucker came around. Willy smiled seeing them sing along. Several minutes later, they moved onto a new song. “[The boatmen dance, the boatmen sing, the boatmen up to ev’rything, and when the boatman gets on shore, he spends his cash and works for more. Dashy boatmen dance, dashy boatman dance, oh dance all night to the broad daylight go home with the gal in the morning!]”

Then another song. “[Ol’ Zip Coon he was a learned scholar(x3), sings possum up a gum tree conny on a stump. Possum up a gum tree coony on a stump(x3), Den over dubble trubble, Zip coon will jump.]” And finally, “[Well I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, look away, look away, Dixie lands! In Dixie’s lands where I was born, early on one frosty morning look away, look away, look away Dixie lands! Well I wish I was in Dixie, hooray, hooray! In Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand and live and die in Dixie! Away, away, away down south in Dixie! Oh Mrs. Mary Wheel the Weaver, William was a gay deciever look away, look away, look away, Dixie lands! And when he put his arms around her, smiled as fierce as a forty pounder…]” And they just kept singing songs. That is until Tess put her phone down and whispered something to Kay.

“What’s that?”

“Y-you don’t remember? We learned about it in US History, it’s a racial form of entertainment.”

“Wait...Tess, what’re you saying?” Kay muttered in disbelief.

“It means, we, and the rest of these guys have been singing Minseltry songs for the past hour!” Tess screamed to Kay.

The music and singing immediately stopped. The Saunders girls stared at the Nathans Family, who sat petrified that the origin of the songs they so merrily sang was exposed. Willy stood up quietly, and cleared his throat, putting on his jacket. “I think it’s high time we go.” Willy turned to his siblings and cousins. “Run.” In a flash the family of Southerners put away their instruments and like a Southern steed galloping through a field they all began to sprint away. The Saunders girls snapped out of their trance of disbelief and Kay was heard shouting something as the Americans ran away.

“You’ve been making us sing-!?” Kay’s face was red with both embarrassment and anger. “Get back here so we can blast you with our new tanks!” but the Americans had hopped into a number of olive green Willys MBs and drove off, leaving Saunders in the dust. Kay huffed, “The nerve of those guys, making us sing that crap!”

Naomi blew a bubble. “Technically we were all singing voluntarily. Still, minstrel songs?” Naomi looked around and realized that one of the jackets was left behind in Willy and his family’s haste to escape the wrath of Saunders and their massive tank arsenal, so picking it up she looked at the arm patch. It was the American flag alright, but where the stars were, instead was the Confederate Battle flag mashing with the original stars. Then Naomi saw that one of the Americans left something other than just a jacket, and that something was quite volatile if used in the right hands.


	30. A Southern Soldier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A certain someone goes to retrieve his shotgun.

Daniel swallowed a thick spit of saliva as he landed on the other side of the concrete wall.  _ Why’d I forget my shotgun? _ He looked to where he and his family had been singing earlier, and of course it was empty. No shotgun. Daniel then noticed a large room built off the side of the Saunders tank hanger, and it’s metal door was left open a crack, and creeping over he read a nameplate on it that read, “Saunders Weapons Store.” The door creaked as he pushed it open, a sliver of moonlight illuminating the room for him. It was filled with WW2 era American guns, ranging from M1 Garands to M2 Brownings, and based off of the countless boxes that read, “Gel Ammo” and “Real Ammo” these guns were both for recreational sport and for god knows what a bunch of Highschoolers needed with that many guns.

Daniel cracked a smile as he saw his target. His shotgun was laying against the wall, next to a rack full with M1 Garands. He stepped into the dark room and grabbed it, feeling the engraved wood of his Winchester Model 1912. It was a fine shotgun, with polished wood and steel, with its stock and handle being engraved with specific patterns. The most prominent engravement was on both sides of the stock, which was engraved with a Confederate battle flag on both sides. Daniel pushed the slide and grinned once more that the powerful buckshot was still in it.

Kay, Naomi, and Alisa were walking around the Tank Hanger, making sure there weren’t any spies trying to find what kind of secret weapons they had bought until they noticed the armory door was left wide open. The three walked over, and they silently walked in, seeing a man’s back, holding the shotgun they had found had been left behind earlier. Kay turned on the lights, and cleared her throat loudly. Pumping the shotgun back into firing Daniel snapped around, aiming the shotgun right at Alisa and Naomi. There was a split second of silence before Naomi grabbed Alisa and dove to the floor, the concrete wall having a chunk blown out of it milliseconds after. Kay went wide eyed before her shock turned to anger. “The fuck are you doing!? Are you trying to blow her brains out with buckshot!?”

Daniel realized what he just did. “No, I’m tryin’ to retrieve my ol’ 12 Gauge here, that’s what. Now lemme just go back to the forest, I’m just here for my shottie.”

However Kay stopped him, stepping in front of the door. “You know we’re still angry about what happened earlier today, right?”

“Course I know about that. But hey it’s your fault for singin’ with us. Now move.” but Kay was clearly adamant.

“I’m not. Besides, you can’t shoot me or anything, it’d be painfully obvious, especially with my vice-captains right here.” Kay nodded to Naomi and Alisa, who had grabbed weapons.

“Well no shit I can’t shoot you! I’m not wasting buckshot on something I could do with my bare hands!” Daniel stomped his boots against the concrete floor and yelled like a strangled bull. “Fine, what’ll it take to get you to let me leave!?”

“One answer.” Kay held up a finger. “We may be the American themed school, but we don’t do any of the dark stuff.”

Daniel sighed and pointed at something over Kay’s shoulder. “You sure? Seems like you’ve got Confederate symbols here and there too.” Looking over, she saw a Sherman that had the Confederate Stars and Bars hanging from it.

“Yeah, but we don’t have any real intentions behind it. You guys are different. Do you actually have any real feelings when it comes to the Confederacy?” Naomi stood next to her commander.

To their surprise he shook his head, but it seemed half hearted. “Me and my family? God knows, we’re a mixed bag when it comes to the Confederates. On one hand, we have this,” Daniel thrust out his shoulder, pointing to the combined US-Confederate flag. “As our family flag, and we even got an old Confederate Flag ol’ Grandpa Wilson had during the Civil War. But far as I know, we don’t care much about it’s symbolism, other than we honor it as part of the family legacy. What about you gals? Do you get flak for it?”

Kay thought for a moment. It was getting late. “Sometimes, when we go to America. But we fly those flags for fun, not racism or anything. I guess you do the same?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say for fun.” Daniel chuckled. “We’re from a different time, remember? Way we see it, it’s just a symbol of Southern Heritage and rebellion. We don’t fly it because we hate blacks, we do it because it’s part of our history. That’s all...Can I go now, or do you wanna have a shooting contest or something?”

“Great idea!” Kay exclaimed, snapping her fingers. Her vice commanders grinned.

“Huh?”

After Kay literally dragged Daniel away, he found himself in an empty field with the three Saunders girls. The sun was beginning to rise, exposing abandoned concrete buildings of various sizes and wooden mock ups for cover. It was a field primarily used for fighting with the Gel Bullets, but today it was a firing range. Orange sunlight glinted off of worn metal targets while a gentle wind blew around them. “Here we are, the Saunders Infantry field! The challenge I have for you, Daniel, is to take out as many targets as you can from this distance.” Kay walked over to a table, where a number of rifles were laid out. Naomi picked up an M1903 Springfield with a scope, and from his spot Daniel watched as Nami easily loaded in the five round magazine. “Alright, choose your rifle Daniel!” Kay said proudly, pointing to the assortment of rifles.

“Uhm, I think I’ll just use this…” Daniel trailed off as he pumped his shotgun with one hand, ejecting the spent casing from before.

“Really!? That’s a shotgun buddy not a rifle.” Alisa questioned in shock. The three watched quietly as Daniel raised his 12 gauge to his shoulder and pulled the trigger, sending a spray of lead pellets downrage into a target, knocking it over from a surprising range. “Nevermind then. Alright, are you both ready?” Alisa put a whistle to her mouth. “3…” Naomi got onto one knee and began to scope out her targets. “2…” Daniel stayed standing, bending his knees slightly, his right finger on the trigger and his left hand ready to slam the pump action. He had taken off his jacket so the stock wouldn’t slide around on it. “1…” Kay began to eat a chocolate bar that she apparently had with her the whole time. “Start!” Daniel finally raised his shotgun to pull height, and pulled the trigger instantly. Naomi followed suit, squinting into the scope and hitting the farthest targets first. Daniel fired his first shot, spraying one target, knocking it down before he swiftly slammed the pump forwards and back, not taking his finger off the trigger.

Kay quickly noticed a pattern to the way Daniel shot. He seemed to never take his finger off the trigger, and as soon as a shell was chambered his Winchester M1912 sprayed out more 12 gauge buckshot. “Looks like his shotgun’s got slam fire. Who do you think will win, Alisa?” Kay said quietly to not throw off their concentration.

“Well…” Alisa watched as Naomi clipped her fifth target, forcing her to take out a clip and reload. “Naomi is precise, but Daniel’s going pretty fast!” Daniel reached into one of his pockets and pulled out three shells all at once, and lining them up perfectly in his hand he pushed all three into his shotgun before taking out three more and repeating. Then he began to slam fire once more. Soon the final thirty seconds came down onto the clock. Naomi inserted what must’ve been her tenth clip of ammo, and aimed down the sights. She took aim at one target, and fired. *clang* was the definitive sound of success. For Daniel, he inserted more shells and fired at a group of targets. He missed his first shot, but adjusted his aim and cut down the three targets easily. “Contest over!” Alisa said before blowing the whistle.

“Alrighty, let’s tally the results!” Kay walked over to where a small computer was held. Wires connected it to the targets, tallying whenever one was shot down. Flipping open the cover, the display read, “Wow, Naomi, you shot down 86 targets in three minutes! As expected of my top sniper! Let’s check Daniel now...Huh, 86 targets too!” Alisa and Naomi raised their eyebrows in amusement. “Well aren’t you a crack shot?”

Daniel laughed his high ragged laugh. “I grew up hunting with this thing after all!” Daniel unloaded the remaining shells, pumping the gun three times, ejecting three unspent shells, which he picked up and stuffed into his jacket, which hung tied around his waist. Alisa caught herself staring for a moment. Daniel was no macho but he was well toned all around, and his white tank top reflected that well. When Daniel looked at Alisa, she looked away while Naomi just stared at Alisa...for some reason.  _ That’s weird...This is a girls’ school though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if any of 'em rolled that way, heheh.  _ “Welp, I should get going soon, it was nice having this contest but it’s almost morning now so see y'all later!” And with that, Daniel ran off with the speed of a Southern Wind.

“Well...Quite the guy huh?” Kay remarked to her Vice-Commanders later in the day.


	31. The Drowned Panthers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koume Akaboshi meets Peter.

Maho sat in her office, reading over the e-mail sent by Kay, which asked for a small practice match between the two. Saunders would get to use their new tanks for the first time while Kuromorimine would get good exercise in their Panthers. There was just one problem. “Erika, how’s the repairs on those Panthers going?”

Erika looked up from a piece of paper she was about to sign. “Hold on, commander…” Erika took out her smartphone, and called a number she had been constantly calling for the past two days. “Are the Panthers repaired yet?”

A nervous voice muttered over the sounds of machinery and engines. “I-I’m afraid not ma’am…”

“What!? How is this taking so long?”

“W-well you know how hard it is to repair Panthers, it’s complicated, and we’re still waiting for parts from factories-” But Erika cut out the call.

“Doesn’t look like it.” she growled. “What’s on the agenda anyways? More matches? We can just use our Tigers and other tanks.”

Maho scanned the email again. “Saunders wants a small match against us so they can use their new tanks, which I assume aren’t the Sherman variants they bought from America. They specifically requested we field only Panthers in this battle, ‘as many as we want’ Kay says.”

“Well just say no then, a good deal of our Panthers aren’t at fighting status.”

“That’s the problem...We  do owe Kay for ‘that’ incident after all…”

Erika blushed remembering what happened. To elaborate, it happened between her and Maho, and Saunders saw them doing something embarrassing which had evolved from a mere accident, but Kay resolved to keep it quiet. “Oh god...not that. Ugh, what can we do then?”

Maho put her strategizing brain into gear.  _ This match of ours only uses ten tanks, and we don’t have enough Panthers to fill ten slots, we can only fill six, seven if we’re lucky with the repairs. If Koume and the other Panthers play their strategy right, they could win but Saunders said they were using completely new tanks so...Wait, where have I seen a Panther before?  _ “Erika, can you call Miho? I need to think of a plan.”

“Of course.” Erika dialed Miho’s phone number, which she remembered from seeing Maho’s phone once. “Miho, you there?”

“Erika? Hello. What do you need me for?” Erika explained the basic situation.

“The Commander told me to call you, but I don’t know how that helps us exactly. It’s not like you have a Panther just lying around, right?”

“Wait...She can’t be thinking of-”

“Erika, can I talk to her?” Erika handed the phone off to Maho. After the two greeted each other kindly(somewhat to Erika’s jealousy) Maho finally unveiled her plan. “‘He’ has two Panthers, right?”

Koume stood in one of the smaller Kuromorimine tank hangers, where she and five other commanders were waiting with their Panthers, their crews loitering about. Nearby the massive doors, their commander Maho kept looking outside, as if she was waiting for someone. And finally someone did arrive. Or rather, two people. First to walk into the hangar was Faber, and Koume felt herself shiver as his one uncovered eye seemed to x-ray the Kuromorimine Panthers and their operators. Faber walked over and greeted Maho before the next person walked into the hanger, and Koume was slightly surprised at his stature. Brown haired with grey eyes, Peter followed his commanding officer into the hanger, glancing around at the Panthers. He wore a standard field grey tankers uniform from the Wehrmacht, although he left out the hat and any pins or medals. Matching colored pants he wore untucked with his boots making a light clack on the concrete.

“Right.” Faber suddenly hopped backwards and clubbed Peter on the shoulders with both hands, causing the kid’s knees to buckle slightly. “This is Peter, his Panther is just outside. He’s a good commander. I can guarantee that, and now I must go.”

Faber suddenly ran off just as Maho said, “Wait, what about the other Panther?”

“Konrad’s a womanizer. So uh, pretty sure letting him into an all girls school is like throwing a match into a room full of dynamite. Oh, right, h-hello…” Peter waved meekly.

Maho nodded acknowledging Peter and what he just said. “Right, we have a battle against Saunders in just half an hour so quick introductions are in order.” Maho pointed to the first Panther crew, who were now scrambling into their tank. “This is Geshiko.” Geshiko, a girl with short, light brown hair, nodded as she climbed into the cupola. “Sheska.” Sheska waved, she was a girl with long blonde hair. “Leila Rou,” Leila, a girl with brown hair tied in two tails waved energetically. “Bauer,” Bauer gave a strong nod, she was a girl with shorter, light pink hair and wearing a medical patch over one of her eyes. “Natsumi” Natsumi gave an enthusiastic nod, she was a girl with brown hair with a long braid. “And Koume Akaboshi.” Koume gave a short wave as she watched Peter. Peter waved or nodded in return to the greetings, before finally waving at Koume, his bandaged face grinning slightly at them all. Maho continued to give orders. “Peter, you and Koume will share the commander's position, got that?”

_ Eh? _ Koume looked at the young boy.

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen his skills on the field. Anyways, I have to go deal with a meeting so I trust you all to live up to this school’s title!” and Maho ran off as well, just like Faber had. Peter nervously chuckled.

“Well, I better get my Panther then!” and he left the hanger to get his Panther into position, leaving the six girls to contemplate their situation.

Sheska was the first to talk about Peter. “Huh...I thought having to fight alongside someone like him was rough but co-commander too? You think we’ll be alright, Koume?”

As the six Panthers rolled out of the hangar, she saw Peter’s iron-cross bearing Panther waiting for them, it’s engine rumbling in anticipation. “Well, if Maho made him co-commander, he must be good then.”  _ Still, it’s pretty weird it’s me and him specifically. We’ll be up against Saunders’ new tanks too… _

It was several minutes until Peter spoke again. “Is...something wrong?”

Koume and the rest of the girls snapped out of their trance and thoughts. “Sorry,” Koume began to apologize. “It’s just that...well we’re not used to males in Sensha-do or anything…”  _ and you're probably older too… _

Peter seemed to read Koume’s last thought. “W-well if it’s any consolation, I’m 16, so I’m probably younger than most of you here…” Peter giggled, rubbing his uncombed brown hair. Sheska began to laugh, and soon the others joined in as their Panthers drew near to the place of battle. And here they were worrying about Peter’s age, when he was actually as young as them. Finally, they drew up to the battle site. A large open plains are with a large rock formation splitting it in two, with one large opening in the middle. The perfect choke point. The Kuromorimine girls dismounted their tanks, with Peter and his crewmen following suit. They walked to an area off the field where Naomi and Alisa were waiting for them, alongside eight commanders from Saunders and their crews.

“So, you're here.” Alisa began. She smiled smugly. “Prepare yourselves, we’ve got new tanks, like the M-” but Naomi covered her mouth with her hand.

“Well, let’s begin? Our tanks are already in place.” Naomi scanned the small crowd of her opponents.  _ Koume...she’s one of the older students at Kuromorimine, she’ll be a priority. _ Naomi didn’t think much else until she finally saw the last commander, and his crew.  _ A guy? Wait...isn’t he one of those Stahlratts? _ The two sides bowed to each other, bidding a good fight, and as Saunders began to walk away, Naomi began to whisper to Alisa. “Do you remember watching that battle between those Germans and Bonple?”

“Yea, what about it?”

“That brown haired kid...he’s one of them, and if I remember correctly, he commands a Panther.”

“Wait...You mean he was the one who drove off the cliff!?”

“Shh, keep it down. Yeah, it’s him. I was going to say to prioritize taking out Koume, since she’s one of the older students, but forget her. If anything, Peter is the most dangerous person on this battlefield.”

“Let the battle begin!”

“Alright Koume, Peter. What’s our plan?” Sheska radioed in as soon as the match began.

Koume scanned the area with a pair of binoculars as she sat out of her cupola. “Hmmm...How about-”

“They’ll most likely send their heaviest tanks into the choke point in between the rock walls. If we can get it stuck there, we can force them into a kill zone.” The girls jumped. Peter’s voice continued to crackle on their radios. “They hinted to us they won’t be using any kind of Shermans, so I’m assuming they’ll be using M10 and M18 tank destroyers, and maybe even M26 Pershings.” Koume turned to look at Peter. He was standing in his Panther’s cupola, his eyes glued to his binoculars, watching a dust cloud rise. “Koume, what do you think?”

“Eh? Ah, right...I think your plan could work out well, but their new tanks could be impervious to our guns, so we’d have to send someone to the other side to get a shot in the rear…”

“I can do that. Shall we move out?”

There was a moment of silence, before everyone responded with a resounding, “[Jawohl!]”

The Panthers set out, rolling their way towards the split in the rock formation. They halted for a moment, spreading out to create the kill zone Peter envisioned. However it was the first Saunders tank they saw that caught them completely off-guard. There was a loud cracking sound as something incredibly heavy rolled over a stone. Instinctively the Panthers opened fire on their target, but they were met with the sounds of deflecting shells.

“[Scheisse!] It’s a Super Pershing!” Sheska cried into the radio. She watched as the armored beast shrugged off more shells, before it turned it’s gun upwards to face the seven Panthers. With a roar, the 90mm gun fired a powerful shell, barely missing Sheska’s tank and blasting a large crater in the small hill behind her. “It’s immune to our guns, we’ll have to get around it somehow!”

Koume looked into her binoculars. “There’s Tank Destroyers moving up behind it too!”

To her left, sitting right next to her in his own Panther was Peter, his eyes closed while he was thinking. He took a deep breath, and turned on his radio piece. “Right...I’ll get behind it and kill it.”

“Eh!? Peter, you can’t be serious.” Koume ducked as a shell flew by the turret of her Panther. “It’s suicide to charge in, and remember, your the co-commander!”

Oddly, Peter just laughed. “Don’t worry Koume. I have faith in your skills! [Vorwarts!]” and without another moment to lose, the engine of the war hardened Panther roared before it shot off towards the Super Pershing, it’s commander closing the hatch behind himself. The Super Pershing turned it’s gun to face the German Medium tank, the Super Pershing fired it’s gun, but Peter’s driver swerved to the side, dodging the shell. “[Feuer!]” Peter commanded. His gunner turned the gun and fired a shot directly into the Super Pershing’s heavy tracks, killing it’s movement on one side. The loader with swiftness, unloaded the spent, smoking shell before immediately slamming in a new one with one hand before closing the breach.

In the Super Pershing, Alisa was beginning to panic in the commander’s seat. “Damn it, M10 covers the flank!” An M10 Wolverine rushed forwards to try and fill the gap on the Super Pershing’s left side, but a 75mm shell slammed into its front plate, leaving the way open. “Turn the gun-” but before the gun could be turned, the Panther squeezed aside it. In the area behind the split in the cliffs, an M18 tried to take aim to shoot the Panther in the flank, when the gunner’s tracking of it nearly caused her to shoot her comrade’s eliminated M10. Peter had just used an eliminated tank as cover. Alisa tried to usher her driver to reverse, kicking her in the back when she was thrown forward by a shockwave from the rear of the Super Pershing, and looking up out of the cupola, she saw the white flag raised for all to see.

“W-wow...He took out an M10 and the Super Pershing just like that!” Leila watched in awe at the destruction Peter caused. “What’s next?” she asked Koume.

Koume radioed Peter quickly. “What’s the situation for you?”

“Well we’re stuck with a number of M10 and M18 tank destroyers on this side, but other than that we’re fine! Do what you need!”

Koume paused.  _ We could stay here and commit to his kill-zone plan, but Peter would be left to fend for himself. He’s my co-commander as well, so losing him would be a strategic loss… _ ”Alright, everyone! We have to exploit this break through, [Panzer vor!]”

Naomi aimed down the sights of her M18, sending it’s 76mm shell towards the bold Panther. It hit right in the tracks, and it stopped in place, now stuck on one track. All the M18s and M10s used by Saunders in the match were all modified to have large one-piece tops with wide ports to cover the vulnerable crew while keeping the visibility as much as possible. “That Panther has thicker side armor, get around to it’s back to get a guaranteed kill.”

“Yes ma’am!” The M10s and M18s began to turn around to attack the Panther, which had all of its guns blazing. The MG-42s spat out their armor piercing tracers, clanging loudly against the thin armor of the tank destroyers, while the 75mm gun cut down the TDs one by one, but not fast enough. Then, “Commander Naomi, the other Panthers are attacking!”

“What!?” Naomi stood up to look through the vision ports, and she cursed herself. Through the hole created by Peter’s charge, the other Panthers were streaming in, quickly taking down the American tanks. “Damn it, keep our back covered!” However, it was too late, as the thick frontal armor of the German cats with the powerful guns kept the tank destroyers at bay.

In the cupola of her Panther, Koume watched as Peter kept up the fight despite not being able to move, and oddly found herself grinning.  _ Thanks to Peter, we can end this quickly! _ “Keep up the pressure, they can’t hold us all off! Their armor is weak, they may be fast but we can match them with our firepower!”

Thirty minutes later, Koume sighed in relief. After having wiped out the tank destroyer force, several M26 Pershings suddenly came from nowhere, but they too were eliminated with time, although a few of the seven Panthers were damaged, and Peter’s was no exception. It had taken the most beating, it’s tracks were destroyed and so were the wheels, along with some of the side armor welded on by Otto. Peter worked on his tracks, small hammer in his right hand while he held up the parts with his left. His men were helping, but for the most part they were just loitering around, helping the other girls with their own maintenance, leaving Peter and his gunner alone to fix his tank. Taking a good break, Peter looked around the hanger, and noticed something odd. All the girls were chatting happily about their victory over Saunders and fixing their tanks, but Koume was quiet the whole time. In fact, she seemed distant from them.  _ Odd...She was good on the battlefield though. _ Peter looked to his gunner, who grinned at him, and with a jump Peter realized his gunner must’ve caught him staring for a moment. “Hmph!” Peter pouted, before he walked off to talk.

The first person he walked to was Leila, who squealed when she saw him. “Peter, right?”

“[J-ja]” Peter replied.  _ She sure is energetic… _

“Man that stunt you did against the Super Pershing was epic! Then you took out those tank destroyers and Pershings, even when you couldn’t move! You’re really good!”

Peter didn’t know whether to thank her and be bashful, or to walk away.  _...I’m not very good with energetic people… _ he thought to himself. “Uh, I’m just going around so I’ll just…go.” and Peter quickly walked away. The next person he ran into was Geshiko, who gave him a wave, but she was busy, so Peter moved on. The next person he actually talked to, was Sheska.

“Oh, Peter. [How are you?]”

“I’m good-w-wait, you speak German?”

“I  am German.”

“O-oh, I never knew that…[Well, it's’ nice I can speak German again!]”

“[Ha ha ha, I feel you, I had to learn Japanese coming to Kuromorimine. Back home in Germany, they call Kuromorimine Schwarzwaldspitze, because weirdly the name isn’t already in German.]”

“[That is weird...Wait, do you call this sport, Sensha-do, Panzerfahren?]” Sheska answered yes. “[Oh good, me and my comrades, we call it Panzerfahren all the time. Anyways, can I ask you something? It’s about,” Peter pointed to Koume, not remembering her name. “Her.”

“[Koume? Sure, ask away.]”

“[Right, so something I keep noticing is that...w-well she seems to keep her distance from everyone. D-did something happen to her?]”

Sheska paused for a solid five seconds, which immediately made Peter uncomfortable. “[During the 62nd Sensha-do Nationals, she was the driver of a Panzer III, which slid off a cliff into a river. The commander of our flag tank, and the vice-commander, Miho Nishizumi, abandoned the flag tank and jumped into the river to save Koume and her crew. But we lost the match when Pravda fired on the flag tank, and ever since then, Koume’s sorta been one of the scapegoats for losing the tournament. Before we lost, Kuromorimine had a nine-year winning streak.]”

“[Wow...nine years, that’s quite good.]”

“[Yeah...I’m not blaming Koume or Miho, but it’s sad we couldn’t get ten years. Why’re you asking about Koume anyways?]”

“[Huh? Oh, uhm...I’m just curious, that’s all. We were the co-commanders together today and she really didn’t object to my plan, even if it was a bit suicidal, which worries me a bit…]”

Sheska laughed. “[Well, nothing’s stopping you from talking to her. Anyways, something I’ve gotta ask is: Who the hell did those modifications on your Panther?]”

“Eh?”

“[I mean look at it. All of our Panthers have the interleaving road wheels design, meanwhile the wheels on yours are just large one piece wheels. The engine sounds completely different, there’s the extra armor on the sides, and on the subject of the engine you seemed way faster than us. Then…” and Peter was forced to spend the next several minutes listening to Sheska’s analysis of his modified Panther, which ended with the German girl asking, “[Who modified this thing? Albert Einstein?]”

“[Otto. I think you’ve seen him?]”

“[Nah.]”

“[O-oh. He’s a man with a buzzcut, black Wehrmacht officer’s uniform, and circular wire framed glasses.]”

“[Nein. Don’t recognize anyone like that. So he modified your Panther?]”

Peter nodded. “[People like to say that whatever he and his family touch, they turn to technological gold. He’s done a lot of crazy things…Anyways, I’m going to repair my Panther, bye!]”

After all of their tanks were repaired, the girls dispersed to go back to their dorms and get some rest. All except Koume. She sat alone on the turret of her Panther as the sun began to go down from its zenith in the afternoon. She sighed, and began to lift herself up to jump off her tank and go home when she noticed something. Peter was still in the hanger, alone with her, while his men must’ve left already. His tank was gone too.  _ Huh...Did they drive off without him? Or…? _ Koume glanced away before sharply looking back at Peter, and the two made eye contact.  _ Knew it. _ “What’s up?”  _ You’ve been stealing glances at me all day, Peter. _

“N-nothing!” he whimpered. “U-uh, well it’s that...I asked your friends, and that Sheska girl, she told me something about you.”

“W...What’d she tell you?” Koume was already feeling a massive amount of dread at the memory of the 62nd Nationals.

“I mean, I’m not one to pry, I just got curious about what happened to you. You almost drowned, right? During a battle, your Panzer III went into a river?”

Koume felt his words stab right into her. She lowered her head, staring at the concrete ground. “Y-yes. Miho sacrificed the flag tank to save us as well.” She saw from the corner of her eye, as Peter took a deep breath and jumped onto the Panther turret alongside her. He looked absolutely nerve-wracked. “Why do you want to know anyways?”

“N-nothing, I’m just a bit worried. My plan today, it was suicidal thinking back on it, and you didn’t object or anything. And just earlier, you seemed very distant from everyone. So I just got worried and curious, so I asked around and here we are. I-I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, it’s alright. I’m over the whole accident. After the match, I got bullied by my peers for losing the match, but I pushed through. Hell, even Erika and Maho helped me through it. And I’m glad I stayed here, at Kuromorimine.”

“...I see. That’s good to hear.” Peter said, somehow finding the courage to smile.

“What about you? You said you're 16, which means you're not any older than me or a lot of people. And you're a soldier from a different time as well.”

“Y-you want me to tell you? About my wartime experiences?”

Koume turned around and her eyes widened. Peter’s face, his eyes, looked hollow. “I-I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have asked-”

“No, I’m not worried about myself I’m worried about what’ll happen to you if I tell you.” Peter said, waving his hand. He turned around to face her, sitting with his legs crossed “You fight in tanks for sport, and I can see that you enjoy it. So I wouldn’t want to soil your love for the sport by telling you war stories.”

Koume found herself staring and gaping at Peter for an uncomfortable amount of time. He still had the same, hollowed out look in his eyes, and realization finally hit Koume.  _ That’s it...The reason we’ve all been so uncomfortable around Peter is because he’s a soldier. No, he’s not even a soldier...He’s just a boy in a uniform. _ Koume took a deep breath. “I think I can take it then. Go ahead and tell me.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Peter relaxed, leaning backwards slightly. “Alright then. When I was 15, I was conscripted to join the German Army, where I was trained to be a tank commander. After a few months of training I was sent out in a Panzer III along with a number of others to fight other armored divisions. But I got me and my crew lost, and while we were crossing a river, an American soldier killed the driver with an Anti-tank rifle, and without the driver we plummeted straight into the river.”

“S-so they…”

Peter nodded grimly. “They drowned. I lived and escaped back to German lines, but they just sent me out again. I did alright for about two months, but well...things turned for the worse. This time I was in a Panzer IV H, crossing through a forest when the engine broke down. Earlier that day we had been in a battle with a few American and British tanks, which we defeated but we were shot in the engine. I ended up leaving for a little bit because we didn’t have parts to repair the engine, and when I came back, the Panzer IV was on fire. I don’t know how it happened...and well, just like that I lost another crew, they burned to death, unable to escape.”

Koume listened with wide eyes. “T-that’s horrible…” And all Peter did in response was nod.

“W-well I should get going so uhhhh, I’ll see you later?” he hopped off the Panther turret and began to walk out of the hanger. He walked out into the afternoon.  _ Rain Clouds. And I don't have a poncho. Well, better hurry then. _ Peter walked for a few minutes until he realized something. “Koume?”

Koume jumped, having walked behind him for quite some time. “O-oh, no I just happen to live in that direction. Anyways we should probably hurry, it looks like it’s going to rain soon…” she said. Just as she finished, she felt a drop of water land on her nose.  _ Great, and I don’t have an umbrella. _ She began to pick up the pace, obviously not wanting to get soaked, but to her surprise Peter seemed very relaxed. Until the rain  really began coming down. It started as a trickle, but it quickly turned into a downpour. The two tankers, on seeing the clouds open up on them, began to run in the direction of a bus stop, Koume getting there first and sitting down under the canopy on the wooden bench. She noticed that Peter was still standing, just barely under the canopy, fidgeting. “You can sit with me, if you want.” she offered.

“[Danke.]” and he quickly sat down next to her, at a respectful distance, and still fidgeting with teenage nervousness, but he quickly stopped and began to look more comfortable.

Koume rubbed her hands together as she gandered a look at Peter more closely. His eyes were steel grey, but they had a softness to them, while his brown hair draped over his ears. His uniform was completely devoid of any medals or pins, as Koume had seen of him earlier, but closer up it looked odd. He sat there, dangling his legs freely like a child. But that was what he was. A child. “Hey, Peter?”

Peter jumped. “Y-yes?”

“Have you ever...killed, anyone?” Koume looked straight ahead, into the unrelenting rain.

Peter stared straight forward, his eyes gaining the same glassed and hollowed look from before. “Plenty of soldiers. Me and the Stahlratts, it’s what we do. Or at least did, before the Wundermotor brought us here. Did Hans ever tell you about me?”

Koume shook her head. “Commander Maho and Erika mentioned watching you and your comrades fight against Bonple and Shizuka. You really drove off a cliff?”

“Hm, I did. I thought it was the best thing to do, considering I was being pursued by a dozen light tanks and Tank destroyers. What did Hans say to them?”

“He just gave them a run down of your backstory, and he apparently mentioned to them how you were conscripted and everything.”

Peter shook his head with a smile. “Of course Hans would do that. He’s the lieutenant of the Stahlratts but he can be so careless...Whatever it is he said to Erika and Maho, he must’ve mentioned Faber. Yeah, he hates the fact I’m still a teenager but I was conscripted to fight for the Nazis.” Peter oddly kept smiling. “But he never told me to abandon them and go home. He knew that traitors would be hung, and the last thing he wanted, according to Hans, was for me, a teenager, to die. Thinking back, I don’t think Faber would’ve stopped me from deserting and trying to look for my mother, but I stayed. And I still stay with them.” Peter turned to look at Koume, who turned to look at him in turn. Oddly, they looked into each other’s eyes for a moment. “Is it the same for you?”

The two teenage tankers returned to looking straight forward into the unrelenting rain. “It is. After the incident, I was bullied relentlessly for losing Kuromorimine the 10th match in a row. My teammates transferred out because of this, but I stayed. My love for Sensha-do wouldn’t allow it. Maho and Erika...they helped me get through it all, and just like you and Faber, they probably wouldn’t have stopped me from transferring out to go somewhere else, but I stayed. I stayed for the comradery I shared with so many people, and I stayed because I couldn’t stay away from Sensha-do.”

Peter’s lips curved into a small smile. “Me too. I stayed because I found comradery among the Stahlrattes, even if the 41 others were older and more mature than me. Everyone likes teasing me like a little sibling, and at the same time they care for me like one. I guess that’s what happens when you're the youngest.” Koume found herself smiling as well, but what he said next surprised Koume a bit. “A-actually...We’re kind’ve alike that way. We could’ve ran, but we chose not to. W-well, that and the traumatizing events but that’s a whole different can of worms…” and Peter laughed. He had a light hearted laugh, which oddly fit him.

“Hah...I guess we are similar.” Koume smiled widely. She rubbed her hands together, thanks to the cold weather. And what he did next completely shocked her. He took her hands into his callused, battle scarred, but warm hands. Koume felt her face turn red in an instant. “W-what are you..?”

Peter, even more to Koume’s shock, looked completely unfazed. “O-oh, I just thought I’d hold your hands, since it’s cold. That’s all…” he tipped his head innocently, raising an eyebrow. He rubbed her hands, and he ended up remarking to Koume, “Your hands are soft too...It’s nice.”  _ Oh shit, did I really just say that!? _ When Peter and Koume inevitably made eye contact again, this time it was Peter’s turn to blush and look away. But he didn’t let go of her hands, and Koume didn’t either. Her hands were too cold, and Peter’s were too warm. And oddly, the two didn’t mind it.

Meanwhile…

“It’s pouring out there...I hope everyone got home okay.” Maho spun her chair around, sipping a cup of hot chocolate while the cold rain beat against the window panes of her office. On a couch, Erika sat at a coffee table, working on documents and plans for any tank battles.

“Oh, I found the report of today’s battle, it was under all of these plan proposals.” Erika said to her commander, pulling out a sheet of paper from beneath the mountain of proposals. “Let’s see...So Saunders brought M26 Pershings, M10 and M18 Tank Destroyers, so now we know what kind of tanks they bought and...A Super Pershing!? Jesus, is Kay finally getting serious?”

“Looks like it. Those new Shermans she bought were formidable against Pravda. What else does the report say?”

“Hmmm...Says here the Panthers won against Saunders’ new tanks, and the others all say here that Peter was very good. Apparently he took out a tank destroyer, then flanked the Super Pershing and destroyed it from the rear, then the others charged the rest of Saunders.”

“Impressive…” Maho paused to take a sip of her hot chocolate. “I’ll have to thank him next time we meet. Speaking of Saunders...Well I hope Kay doesn’t blackmail us or something, because of ‘that.’ Oh god that would be horrible if she told everyone…”

Erika, like her commander, blushed at remembering what happened. Erika tried not to recall the whole thing, but she couldn’t stop herself, and soon she was reliving one of the most intimate and embarrassing moments of her life.


	32. Spilled Chemicals

It was an ordinary day at Kuromorimine, tanks were out and about training and fighting, while Erika and Maho inspected the equipment kept in a smaller warehouse built off the side of the KMM Tank Hanger. Within was a single surplus Panzer III M, and shelves full of shells, bullets, and other whatnot. But for some odd reason, there was a beaker full of clear white liquid on the Panzer III M. 

“What in the world?” Erika picked up the beaker, sloshing around it’s contents. “Are the science groups messing around with somethi-” when the beaker suddenly cracked, then the whole bottom blew open, spraying Erika all down the front with the liquid. “O-ow!” she cried out when her clothes began to smoke and sizzle.

“Shoot, it must be acid! Erika quick, take off your clothes!” Maho commanded, grabbing Erika from behind to help her pull off her jacket and undershirt. Erika blushed at the contact, but she complied, tearing off her clothes(not literally). As her jacket went off, Maho began to take off Erika’s undershirt, for some reason still doing it from behind. But just as she began to take off Erika’s wine red undershirt, she grabbed something very soft and squishy.  _ What the? _ And without thinking, she squeezed roughly.

“Mm!” Erika moaned cutely, her face turning even redder than before. Maho raised an eyebrow before she squeezed again, this time with a more fondling movement. “Nyah...C-commander what’re you doing?” Erika said with a slight whimper.

Maho looked over Erika’s shoulder, and her face both paled and turned red upon seeing something so obvious that even a rock could see it. Maho’s hands rested directly atop Erika’s perky breasts, which were covered by a dark grey sports bra, and were currently being squeezed by Maho, whose hands flew off like they had been too hot to handle. Maho tried to apologize, but she couldn’t find the words to excuse her unprofessional and perverted behavior. “E-E-Erika I’m so sorry, I d-didn’t know what I was doing and-” was all Maho could stutter when:

“Wow…” the two girls felt like they had been shot or electrocuted. Or both, when they heard a familiar voice whisper it’s amazement. Turning around, they saw in the doorway, the blonde figure of Kay, her mouth open in amazement. “I didn’t know you guys were like that.”

“W-wait this isn’t what it looks like!” Erika and Maho screamed simultaneously, both extremely embarrassed.

“Nah don’t worry, I’m pretty sure Naomi’s gay too. Welp, I’mma leave you guys alone, later!” and before they could get an explanation as to why Kay was in their school, she left, closing the door behind her. They later found out that Kay wanted to swing by for a visit, but she didn’t announce it, and looking around for the commander and vice-commander of Kuromorimine, found them together in the equipment closet. And of course, she had only seen the boob fondling.


	33. The Drowned Panthers continued

As Erika closed out of the flashback, she looked to her commander. Despite Maho looking down at her desk, Erika could tell that they both remembered the entire incident. Erika, still blushing, stuttered, “W-well I wonder where Peter is now.”

“Brrr...It’s cold…” Saori muttered as she rubbed her cold hands together. In her right hand she held an umbrella to protect from the rain.

“Don’t worry, we just have to find Peter first.” To her right, Peter’s gunner walked alongside her, his Wehrmacht uniform covered by a green camo colored poncho. “Then we can go back. Do you know where he is?”

“I thought you would. You're his gunner.”

“Well, he did tell us to go home without him, so…” The gunner looked straight forward, down the water logged street. “Oh well. I think he wanted to talk to that Koume girl.”

“Wait, really!? Maybe he’s...hehehe.” Saori giggled.

“No, I don’t think it’s like that. Peter’s too shy to be like that.”

“But it’s perfect! It’s cold and raining, perfect for a confession scene!” Saori said with expertise. The gunner of the Panther said nothing. “By the way, did I ever ask your name?”

“[Nein.] My name isn’t very important, however.”

Saori pouted. “Suit yourself, gunner.”

“Exactly.”

“Huh?” Saori raised an eyebrow, perplexed.

“Everyone just calls me Gunner in the tank. Even Peter. But it simplifies things, and we’ve been doing it for years.” Then the two stayed quiet for some time, walking down the street of the Kuromorimine urban area looking for the 16 year old soldier. “Ah, there he is.”

“Really? Where-” Saori suddenly gasped loudly at what she was seeing. Right ahead, underneath the bus stop canopy, was Peter and Koume, still holding hands and blushing. “Oh my god oh my god oh my god-This is totally a romantic scene, hey-MMpH!”

Peter’s gunner grabbed Saori around the neck and stuffed her face into his torso, muffling her romantic fueled squealing. “Shush. Peter’s having his moment, I think.” The gunner, still stoic on the surface, was smiling broadly deep down.  _ Huh...I didn’t think he’d muster up any sort of courage to do anything like that...Nice. _

Peter’s blush faded as he got used to holding Koume’s hand. He’s held plenty of hands before, girls included, but there was something oddly different. Perhaps it was because of his similarities with Koume? Well, he didn’t get to formulate an answer before he looked up and saw his gunner right across the street, and a very muffled and excited Saori, watching as he and Koume held hands. And immediately his blush returned.


	34. The Tigers

Lennard sat underneath a canopy, a warm sun in the sky and a cool breeze in the wind. To his right, his fellow Tiger 1 commander Carl sat watching the ongoing spectacle. To his left, Maho Nishizumi sat, her Vice-Commander leading the tanks of Kuromorimine in shooting and driving practice. “So, how are they?” Maho asked without turning, keeping an eagle eye over her team.

Lennard looked up from painting his helmet. “They’re good, but I personally think they need to be less rigid.” Lennard watched as the Tigers, Panthers, Tiger IIs, Panzer III and IVs rumbled along the massive open field in a Panzerkeil, heavy tanks up front, lighter tanks in the back. The formation halted at Erika’s command, before each tank began to scope out targets hidden in a small forested hill area.

“Fire!” At Erika’s command, the tanks fired, filling the few seconds of silence created by their halt with the thundering of guns. The shells flew straight and true, bombarding the hill and taking out the targets. But when the smoke cleared, a few were still standing. “Damn. Fire at will!”

As the guns continued to fire at their targets, Maho glanced over at Lennard and his painting project. “The Afrika Korps Emblem?”

“[Ja.]” Lennard continued to use whitish-tan paint to create the famous Afrika Korps seal, swastika included, except it was facing left, not right. “Hmmm…Eh, it’s not facing right, and it’s straight, so it should be fine…” he muttered before he set the helmet down to try, wiping off any excess paint. “I used to be in the Afrika Korps, but I think everyone knows what happened to them.”

“I see. What about you, Carl?” Maho turned to the more excited looking tanker, who wore the typical Wehrmacht tankers uniform in field grey with the matching cap.

Carl looked up, grinning. “Afrika Korps too, [madchen.] Me and Lennard were the Tiger duo before we got pushed out by the Allies. Then we spent some time fighting in France before we were pulled to join the Stahlratts.”

Maho nodded in simple acknowledgement. “What was your tactic? And your statistics, if you don’t mind telling.”

“We would have a smaller force of Panzer IIIs and IVs act as a distraction while we flanked around. That way we could defeat heavier tanks like the Churchill while our heavy armor was facing them.” Carl explained calmly.

“Interesting. The Nishizumi Style is similar to the Blitzkrieg. We attack in a tight formation so as to maximize effectiveness in armor and firepower. That way we can make sure any frontal assault wipes out our foes.”

Lennard finally spoke up again. “That fits this school’s theme. However, I can already see the flaws in it. What if someone flanks you? What if you fight in more tight or messy terrain? What if you are split up?”

“Fine points to make. That’s why we’re training to use Medium and Light tanks in our formations. That way they’ll be able to deal with the lighter vehicles while the heavies duel the enemy heavies if they have any.”

“Hmmmm,” Lennard stopped to think. “Perhaps you could get some pointers from Hans or Commander Faber. They’re experts at flanking. Did they ever tell you about what they did before the Stahlratts?”

“We did not, Lennard.” The three twisted around to see an all too familiar face briskly walk towards the stands. Adjusting his peaked cap, Faber continued. “I was an Oberleutnant in the 7th Panzer Division, and Hans was an Obergefreiter, he commanded a combined squadron of Panzer II and Panzer IIIs. I myself, I helped Erwin Rommel formulate plans.”

Maho raised an interested eyebrow at the appearance of the general. “Oh, it’s you, Eisenherz. What’s your rank now?”

Faber answered crisply. “Generaloberst, leader of the 41 soldiers of the Stahlratts [Tankeinheit.]” Faber took a seat near them, watching the formation lead by Erika, which had destroyed the targets and were beginning to move again in a spearhead formation. “Combining Heavy and Medium tanks...A good strategy if you ask me.”

“Thank you. We’re hoping to give ourselves more flexibility in battle.” Maho said. “We seem to struggle with having our tanks be isolated and in more urban environments, so I hope to fix it all with Erika before I graduate from Kuromorimine.”

Faber, however, had a few things to critique. “That’s good, but,” Maho perked up. “I can imagine fast tanks like British Cruiser Tanks or the Panzer II Sturmwind being able to inflict devastating casualties if they can get around the formation. Not only that, but you said that your tankers struggle with being isolated, which means if something like an artillery bombardment split up the formation, it would only be a matter of individual encirclement to destroy them. Me and my men focus on splitting up large formations and taking them out individually, through whatever tactic they need to use. We have a focus on being a small but powerful fighting force of Panzer Aces.”

“...Sounds like the opposite of the Nishizumi-style. As I’ve said, we usually exploit frontal assaults with Heavy Tanks like Tigers and Panthers. But you use more hit and run style tactics?”

“Exactly. It’s the entire concept that the Stahlrattes was founded upon, being a small but all powerful concentration of Panzer Aces. All of my men have prior experience in war and tanks. Peter is a Panzer Ace, and only at 16. Lennard and Carl inflicted devastating losses while in the Afrika Korps. Konrad is quite wacky, and a womanizer, but while fighting against the Soviets he managed to gain himself a reputation for being able to pick out high priority targets with ease and destroy them with only a single shot. I was a Panzer Kommandant on the Eastern Front too, but...well that’s a story for another time.” Faber looked back up to the formation of Kuromorimine German Tanks, which had halted after all of their practice, to take a break before they would get right back into drilling new tactics in.

Maho found herself impressed by the Stahlratts.  _ Well...it fits, they’re real soldiers after all. And their tanks are impressive as well. If Sheska and the others are right, the Panther used by Peter exceeded anything their own Panthers could do. _ Maho smiled. “Perhaps you should give some pointers to them?”

Erika took a great gulp of water from a balkenkreuz engraved water bottle. Shouting out orders and generally, just commanding such a large formation without her commander was tiring her out.  _ We used newer tactics against Pravda and Ooarai in that battle earlier this week, but then that UHLS arrived. Not only that, we still managed to suffer great losses in urban combat, and now Saunders has completely new tanks. What to do… _

“Erika!”

“Ah, yes commander!” Erika jumped up from her stupor of strategy and saluted Maho, who, the Sensha-do Team’s great surprise, accompanied by Lennard, Carl, and Faber. “What’re they doing here?”

“Hm? They were watching you lead, and I thought they could give us some pointers.” Maho gestured towards the German trio, who all saluted or nodded in turn.

Faber shrugged. “I said that, but the problem is that I’m only familiar with encircling and flanking tactics. And if you were going to ask about joining you, we cannot. We left all of our tanks on the Zuikaku.”

Maho’s phone suddenly rang. Quickly answering it, she smiled. “Actually, Miho says she and her friends will be coming over for practice matches, so they could bring your tanks for you.”

“Ah. Then she can inform our crews to follow them onto this ship then.” And soon Maho was texting her younger sister.

Miho’s phone rang with Maho’s response.  _ Sure. Eisenherz also says to alert the crews of his Tiger Is and Tiger II. See you. _ Miho smiled, understanding what Maho meant. In the cupola of the Panzer IV H, she commanded Mako to swing by the forest. Mako turned the tank to the right, taking it away from the convoy of Ooarai tanks and towards the forest.

“What’re we doing? Miporin.” Saori asked.

“Faber wants us to bring the crews of his Tiger II and the other two Tiger Is, and the tanks too. I think they're on the Graf Zeppelin with onee-chan.”

“Ooh, I see!” Yukari broke into a smile. “So we can have our matches alongside the Tigers of the Stahlratts!” Coming to a stop outside the forest, Miho saw a group of four Germans, clad in casual clothing squatting around a firepit and eating sauerkraut.

“Hm? Oh, Nishizumi. What is it? And why the Panzer IV?” one of them asked.

Miho read Maho’s message again with a glance. “Faber went onto the Graf Zeppelin, right?” They nodded. “He says to alert the crews of the Tigers and to come with us to the Graf Zeppelin.”

“Uhm, you mean to just bring the tanks right? And the crews?” Miho firmly nodded. “Alright, we’ll go get ready then.” The man stood up, closing the jar and wiping his hands off his pants. “[Get the Tiger Is and Konigstiger ready! We’re going with Ooarai.]” he shouted into the forest. Minutes later, the rumbling of engines and tracks on soft dirt told them that their requested tanks we’re on their way.

“Where the heck did Nishizumi go?” Momo opened the single small hatch on the top of the Hetzer 38(t), looking around. At the front of the line of the Ooarai tanks, she stood on the Hetzer, craning to see if Miho was coming up behind them. “Erwin, you're near the back of the line, do you see Miho?”

“No, not yet PR President.” Erwin opened the hatch of her Stug III F to look out as well. They all drove on in silence for a solid few minutes when something came into Erwin’s vision. “There’s the Anglerfish Team! And...Tigers?”

“Wait, Tigers?” Momo took a pair of binoculars to see the very back. In it, she saw the Anglerfish Team Panzer IV H go around the line to begin catching up with the front. When it did so, it further exposed the three tanks following it. Two sandy colored Tiger Is and the dark grey and green Tiger II of Faber Eisenherz. “What are they...doing here?” Momo jumped back into the Hetzer to grab the radio piece. “Nishizumi, why in the world are those Tigers accompanying us?”

Miho gave a simple answer. “Faber and the commanders of the Tigers are on the Graf Zeppelin. So he wants us to bring along their crews and tanks so they can do what they need to do.” Miho turned around to wave at the Tiger II. Faber’s driver decided to stay 4 tanks from the back to the right of the Duck Team’s Type 89B, completely shadowing it with it’s larger and more imposing frame and size.

“W-wow…” Noriko muttered as she stood up in the cupola of the Type 89B, giving her a good look at the Stahlratte-owned Tiger II. Duck Team had fought and successfully harassed a Tiger II and two Panthers during the Ooarai battle against Kuromorimine, and even then, they had pushed through their fear with their slogan of “GUTS!” But this time, there was something different about seeing the dark Tiger II. “Man, it’s like it’s giving off this energy or something.”

“What?” Shinobu said from the driver’s seat.

“Huh? No, like...I’m just getting this weird feeling from this Tiger II, y’know? It’s got that battle hardened look and feel to it.” Shinobu just sighed at her captain’s random gutsy antics, but she secretly knew what she was talking about. Looking at the Tiger II from her driver’s seat(somehow)she could see marks where deep gashes had once been on the Tiger II turret, along with the very faded balkenkreuz. It overall looked like a beaten and worn tank, but a strong and proud one. Ahead towards the middle and front of the armored convoy, the Tiger Is seemed to have the same feel to it. Faded paint, and heavily beaten by war and strife, but still going strong.

For the next few minutes, things went smoothly as they reached the bridge that would allow them to cross into the territory of the Graf Zeppelin. The tanks went up, and not a single creak from the steel bridges. It still amazed a lot of people that the bridges were so large and could hold such extreme weights. Unfortunately, one thing went wrong, and that was the Porsche Tiger. “Not again!” Tsuchiya practically screamed as Nakajima climbed out of the cupola to see that the engine of the Porsche was beginning to pour with smoke. The Tiger II came to a halt just behind it, the driver opening his hatch to see the problem.

“[Hey isn’t that a Porsche Tiger? The one Otto said failed it’s testing trials miserably?]”

“[Ja.]” the Radio Operator said from his seat next to the driver. He ran a finger across the hull mounted MG-42 before he continued. “[If I remember, it has a very poor engine, which is unreliable. I think Otto once made fun of the Ooarai girls for it.]”

“[Of course he’d do that. Alright, let’s just tow it. They're called Leopon, right? Right.] Leopon!” the driver called from his spot in the open hatch.

“What!?” Nakajima howled in obvious frustration.

“We’ll tow you, just reverse a bit so we can get onto the bridge.” Nakajima raised an eyebrow. Last time she checked, the Maybach HL 230 P30 engine of the Tiger II couldn’t cross the Russian border without overheating at least once, and could much less tow the 59 ton Porsche Tiger. 

But still, Nakajima called to Tsuchiya, “Back up the Leopon! These guys are gonna tow us!” The Tiger (P) roared back to life and slowly backed up enough that the Stahlratte Tiger II could fit through and onto the bridge. The gunner of said tank climbed out, and pulling on a long length of cable attached to a thick box on the back, he climbed out and attached two hooks onto the front of the Porsche before he shouted for the go ahead to begin the tow, just as he jumped back into the Tiger II. “Hey guys?” the three other mechanics gave a “Yeah?” in return. “You think these guys will be able to tow us? Considering the engine of the Tiger II overheated when the Russians were moving them for testing especially.”

“Guess we’ll see then.” Hoshino said.

The engine of the Konigstiger roared before the tank suddenly lurched forward with surprising speed. As soon as the cables tightened it actually began to drag the Porsche forwards before Tsuchiya remembered to step on the gas. “Damn that’s a powerful engine!” she squealed in surprise. “Did we ever see what’s actually  inside their tanks?”

“Nope. We better though!” Suzuki cheered. “Finally, we’ve conquered a hill without needing the entire team to tow us!” and her teammates whooped at their aided overcoming of an incline. Despite not going very fast, in fact it’d be more accurate to say they were moving at the pace of a UHLS tank on it’s last fumes, it was still better than nothing and surprisingly they got into shouting distance with the rest of the Ooarai convoy. That is until the last Ooarai tank, the Stug III, disappeared over the ramped bridge and onto the main body of the Graf Zeppelin.

The gunner of the Konigstiger was tapping his foot impatiently.  _ Why are we so slow!? _ “Driver we’ll get left behind at this rate!”

“We already are. Do you want me to overtax the engine the rest of the way up? It’s only a few minutes left at this point.”

“Just do it man. I hate getting left behind.”

“Damn, you should be Hans’ driver then. Alright hold on, tell Leopon to stomp on the gas too or else we’ll just be dragging them the rest of the way.” The Konigstiger Driver shifted the gear stick into the top setting, putting the transmission and engine into overdrive.

“What’s he saying?” Tsuchiya poked her head out of her driver’s hatch. “What’d you say!? I can’t hear you!”

“Go into top gear! We’re powering up our horsepower!”

“Oh Jesus.” Tsuchiya nervously put the Porsche into it’s most powerful gear, which typically caused it to overheat the engine and break down entirely. The Konigstiger roared like a tiger about to pounce. Then, it suddenly shot forwards at a speed so ridiculous that just moments before the Porsche was pretty much dragged up the bridge the Leopon Team wondered if they were being towed by a 68-70 ton tank or a whole panzer battalion. “OH WHAT THE HECK!?” was the general cry from the Leopon Team as the entire 59 ton Porsche Tiger was pretty much dragged up the rest of the way by the Konigstiger’s overpowered engine. The incredibly exhilarating ride was finally stopped when the Tiger II cleared the bridge, jumping in the air a bit before landing with a small crash, while the Porsche came to a stop, the cable’s slacking at last. Then the Konigstiger’s engine burst into flames, but no one in the Porsche seemed to mind because they couldn’t tell whether or not to be shocked or to feel post-exhilaration. The rest of the Ooarai team stared in silence. Just mere moments ago they saw the Tiger II get some air while dragging the 59 ton Porsche Tiger behind it like it was made of wood, and now it just sat quietly, it’s engine licking with flames. The other Germans in the two Tigers just stared with the look of, “They did it again.”

And then a gray kubelwagen rolled up, and sitting in it was Maho, Erika, Faber, Lennard, and Carl. Faber just laughed at the sight of his Tiger II. “Overclocked the engine again, of course.”

Once they put out the fire and confirmed that nothing really needed repairing, all the Ooarai and Stahlratte tanks rolled out and soon they arrived at their destination. The Kuromorimine tank training grounds. Overall, a wide open field with little obstructions save for a few forested hills and crests, which were perfect for hiding targets in. There was even a small abandoned urban area not far away, which was perfect for training with the lighter Panzer IIIs and IVs. Heck, even the Maus was getting work in, although it hadn’t been used for quite some time in battle. Not since Ooarai pulled it’s absurd killing stunt on it. Either way, however, there were a whole lot of Kuromorimine commander’s looking for revenge on the Ooarai Sensha-do team for the embarrassment they cost them. One of these commanders was Emi Kojima, who was eagerly awaiting for Ooarai. “Heheheh…”

“What’s up? You and some of the others have been laughing for a while, is something wrong?” Sheska asked, raising an eyebrow. Emi was the commander of a Jagdpanther which had its tracks blown off twice in the span of five minutes by the Hezter.

Emi cackled, “I can finally get revenge on that damn Hetzer! And in battle too!”

“Are you still going on about that? I thought your opinion of them changed after you and some of the others snuck onto Ooarai.” Sheska racked her memory for a few seconds. “They treated you?”

“W-Well yes but I’m still itching for a fight with that Hetzer!” Emi defended herself, blushing a little. “Besides, there’s a difference between getting to settle a feud officially and non-officially!”

“Alrighty then.” Sheska turned to her teammates, exasperated that Emi was still going on about Ooarai. “Hey guys, could you-” then Sheska turned to see Geshiko, Sangou, and Mauko all with the same scheming faces. “Nevermind.” Geshiko, a Panther commander, had been screwed over by the Hetzer when it caused chaos in the ranks. Sangou had been sniped by god knows who, and Mauko was overall bitter when it came to her beloved Maus and the stunt that killed it. Luckily at that moment, the Kubelwagen from Kuromorimine arrived at the field, but this time only Erika and Maho were in it. It was closely followed by the Ooarai tank column, with Miho at the lead of the pack.

“Ahah! There they are!” Emi grinned at the prospect of finally getting her revenge in battle, and when she looked to her right she could see that Geshiko was eager as well. “Come on let’s go get our tanks Geshiko!” and the two eagerly ran off from the break area to get their Jagdpanther and Panther respectively. Mauko didn’t go anywhere since her Maus was just sitting around, dwarfing the other tanks with it’s absurd size, and Sanguo was already climbing into her Panzer III J.

Sheska sighed, walking up to the grey kubelwagen where Erika and Maho were disembarking to rejoin their tanks. “What’s the plan, commander?”

Maho said shortly to her, “We’ll just do some matches with Ooarai, and train as well. And we’ll also be having some guests over.”

“Guests? Where-” and Sheska received her answer when she spotted the Stahlratte’s Tigers getting closer and closer at a quick speed. “Wait a minute are those the Stahlrattes?”

“Yup. Tell everyone to get ready, they’ll be helping us train.”

Ten minutes later and Faber watched as a tank column made of several Kuromorimine Panthers and Panzer IIIs went rumbling down a road. He began to count them. From his Konigstiger’s hiding spot in a patch of trees and bushes it was perfectly concealed, with drapes of moss hanging from the barrel, making it look like a tree branch, even though the long barrel was sticking out. Telescope in hand(because he has an eyepatch, remember?)He counted four Panthers and six Panzer IIIs. The Panthers were at the front in back in pairs while the remaining Panzer IIIs were left in the center. With a tap on the shoulder from Faber’s iron toed jackboots, the gunner turned the turret to the right at 2 o’ clock, right at the first Panther in the column. Wordlessly, Faber’s gunner pulled the trigger. The gun roared to life splitting the quiet air and the five man crew watched in satisfaction as the shell made contact with the side of the first Panther. It burst into smoke and the white flag popped up. Then, the gunner aimed for the last Panther in the column, at 11 o’ clock, and fired once more. Bullseye. Faber’s loader manually inserted an 88mm shell from a custom storage rack located on the floor of the turret right at his feet. Faber watched as the remaining Panthers and Panzer IIIs scrambled to find his location before his Konigstiger roared once again.

“Platoon 1, come in. This is Commander Nishizumi.”

“Roger, Commander! We’re under attack, we don’t know who it is and they’ve already taken out all the Panthers!”

“Where are they shooting from? Left or right sides?”

“I-We can’t tell right now, hold on a second...Found it! Everyone, aim to the right and fire tracers! That’s where we’re getting shot from-Eek!”

“Sangou? Come in.”

“Sorry Commander, I got hit. I don’t know what’s attacking us, I don’t think it’s Ooarai though.”

“Got it. Hold out for as long as possible, I’ll send Platoon 2 to your sector.”

Platoon 2 consisted of 15 tanks. Four Tiger Is, one Tiger II commanded by Erika, and the rest were Panthers or Panzer IVs. As Erika received Maho’s transmission she began to tap her foot nervously. In this short battle, which was mostly just a “blast each other until you're satisfied” kind of deal, the Stahlrattes elected to be their own team. And so the Stahlratte owned Tiger Is and Konigstiger split off in three directions. Ooarai went to the other side of the field so they could prepare, but Erika wasn’t counting on them to defeat the Stahlrattes. Opening the hatch Erika stood in the cupola, surveying the area. At the lead, she and the rest of Platoon 2 were coming to a field where they saw the flaming and white flagged carcasses of the defeated Panthers and Panzer IIIs. Their crews were nowhere to be found, having bailed out and left the field.  _ All ten of Platoon 1, in just a few minutes...We’re dealing with a real monster here. _ “Everyone, spread out and search the area!” Erika radioed to her comrades. “We don’t know who ambushed Platoon 1 here, but if it’s Eisenherz it is of utmost importance we take him out or we retreat, got that?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Come in, Platoon 3. Koume, any situation developing?”

“Roger, Commander Nishizumi! We ran into Ooarai’s Char B1 and M3 Lee earlier, but we took them out at the loss of a Panzer III M and a Panzer III J1. So far we haven’t run into anything else.”

“Alright, good job. Panzerjager, report.”

“We’re currently engaged with Ooarai’s Panzer IV, Hetzer, and Mark IV. No losses just yet, we’ve been lobbing shells at each other for the past few minutes or so without any real developments. What should we do?”

“Send out the Marder Is and IIs to flank them where they won’t be able to hit. Based on your location, a frontal attack would prove fruitless considering there’s a wide ditch between the two of you with cover on both sides. Do you need me to repeat?”

“No ma’am, I got that. Marder Is and IIs, split up and flank around Ooarai! Everyone else, keep firing!”

Miho fliched, but kept her cool as she felt a shell impact the right side of the Panzer IV H Turret, scraping off the schurzen and bouncing the shell off the side. Partially under the cover of several rocks and bushes, the Panzer IV H blazed to life with a 75mm shell across the ridge, hitting the front plate of Kuromorimine’s Jagdtiger. Or at least, one of them. When Miho encountered the Kuromorimine tank destroyer unit,  _ Panzerjager _ , she was shocked to see that Kuromorimine had not one, but four Jagdtigers, along with a number of Jagdpanthers, Jagdpanzer IV, Marder Is, IIs, and IIIs, and two Elefants. Meanwhile she was stuck with her trusty Panzer IV H, the Hetzer, and the Mark IV, none of which seemed to have the firepower nor the mobility to take out the big guns in the ongoing frontal firefight. “Keep firing! I’ll call the others to try and relieve us!”

“Roger that captain!” Ogin said as she spotted something out of the corner of her eye, from her spot in the Mark IV. “Captain, I can see a bunch of the Kuromorimine tank destroyers trying to flank us!”

“Here too!” Anzu relayed from the Hetzer 38(t).

“Shoot...Ogin, use your starboard gun to hold them off, Anzu, pull back and keep them at bay! We’re pinned down as we are.”

“Roger that!” the two captains relayed. In the Mark IV, Ogin called out to Murakami, “Murakami we’ve got raiders at starboard, keep em off our sides!”

“Got it boss!” Murakami yelled over the gunfire. Loading a 57mm shell into the QF-6 Pounder, Murakami swung the gun around and fired a shell straight into an oncoming Marder II. “Come on then!” Shark Team jumped as a 75mm shell from one of the Marder’s blew off one of the tracks, but other than the right track they were fine.

“Damn, where is everyone!?” Ogin grumbled. Unfortunately, the Stug III, Porsche, Type 3 Chi-Nu and the Type 89B were still a good distance away. And for the Stug III, it’s four girl crew stared down what was probably the worst tank they could’ve fought.

“A Tiger I...and not just any Tiger, it’s one of the Stahlratte Tigers.” Erwin reached back to the radio, which buzzed with a new message from Miho.

“Hippo Team, come in, what’s wrong?”

“Miho,” Erwin started. “We’re facing down a beast. Over and out.” Erwin cut out the radio, a determined look on her face. “Alright. Saemonza, keep the gun tracked on the Tiger as best as possible-” but the Tiger Is gun suddenly lit up, but the shell just barely scraped off the top. “Shit! Oryou get us out of here!”

“Roger that Erwin!” Oryou twisted the stick into reverse before going straight forward around the flank of the Tiger, which oddly sat still.

“Saemona, like I said, we have to get a shot in the rear. According to the Student Council the additional armor is enough to stop their gun, and if they can’t do it, we can’t. Oryou, when that thing stops, get us to the rear.”

“Got it, but...why is it sitting still?” Oryou looked through the vision port to confirm her statement. The desert colored German Heavy Tank was sitting still as a stone, in the middle of a field which only it, the Hippo Team Stug III and several defeated Panzer IVs sat. Now facing the rear of the Tiger, Oryou gasped when she saw the Tiger suddenly swing around on one tread with absurd swiftness. “Crap hold on!” Oryou shouted as she kicked the Stug’s engine into overdrive, sending it flying barely dodging another 88mm shell from the Tiger I. The Tiger I suddenly went into a swift reverse, blocking it’s rear by backing up into a Panzer IV G.

“This thing is really fast. And now one of it’s only weaknesses is gone.” Erwin grit her teeth at the situation.  _ How’re we gonna destroy this thing? What would Rommel do… _

“Erwin, I’ve got an idea.” Saemonza cut into her commander’s thoughts. “We might be able to break through the side armor by blowing them off and hitting the vulnerable part. But it’s risky, the Tiger might swing around and hit us head on.”

“Better than no plan! We do like Erwin Rommel, fast and decisive!”

“Hah, this is like the duals of Musashi Miyamoto against a greater enemy!” Saemonza cried.

“No no, the Battle of Shiroyama. Samurai against the Imperial Japanese Army!” Oryou objected.

Caesar had her own idea. “The last stand of Sempronius Densus, giving his life to defend his charge!”

“That’s it!” her teammates cried while pointing. Erwin smirked. “Alright girls, you know what to do. Panzer vor!” The Stug III braked at the last second, dodging yet another shell. The Tiger I sat with its gun trained right atop the smaller tank destroyer. Then it too began to move, charging the Stug III, which managed a short spin, allowing Saemonza to destroy one of the tracks.

“Track down! This should make it much easier!” Saemonza waited for Oryou to get them around the flank, and took her shot. The shell tore off a single thick metal plate, but now the thin flank was exposed. The Tiger however, wasn’t going down without a fight. On its last track, it turned around, and again, and again, and again denying Hippo Team the killing blow to it’s right side.

“Darn! Hold on, I’m pulling a Mako!” Oryou shouted.

“Eh?” Erwin jumped as Oryou suddenly slammed on the brakes, dodging one last 88mm and drifting on the dirt so the gun was directly facing the exposed right flank of the Tiger. “Fire!” Without a second of hesitation Saemonza pulled the trigger, and the 75mm shell slammed into the side, sending up a plume of smoke and the white flag popped up from the Tiger. “W-We...We did it! We defeated one of the Stahlrattes! By ourselves!” When everyone else in the Stug III realized this, they jumped for joy. Erwin decided to open her hatch for a breath of fresh air. Standing out of the cupola, she watched as the commander’s hatch of the Tiger I opened up, and out came the stahlhelm wearing Lennard.

Lennard looked at Erwin. “So...you emulate Rommel?” Erwin nodded proudly. “Ah, I see. I thought you looked familiar, I was in the Afrika Korps, so I saw him all the time.” he casually said while pointing at the white Afrika Korps emblem painted on his stahlhelm.

“Huh?”

“Carl too. This Tiger is the same one that I’ve been using ever since I became part of the Afrika Korps.”

“W-Wow…” Erwin was quite shocked that so many people in the Stahlrattes knew Erwin Rommel, her idol. “Remind me to ask you more later, I’ve gotta back up my team!” Without another word, Erwin jumped into the Stug III, which rode off into the valley, where the sounds of gunfire were still going strong.

Lennard smirked.  _ Careful. Carl is still out there. _

“Everyone retreat! We’ll be cut down like grain if we stay!”

“Roger that Vice-Commander Erika!”

Erika grit her teeth. The 2nd Platoon, made up of four Tiger 1s, Erika’s Tiger II, and several Panthers and Panzer IVs, added up to 15 tanks overall. And now there were only 3 tanks left. Erika herself, a Panther, and a Panzer IV J. They had entered the field of defeated and wrecked Kuromorimine Panthers and Panzer IIIs, when one of the Tigers was struck by a shell from nowhere. Firing off smoke grenades far into the distant groups of bushes and rocks, Erika could’ve only held her breath as emerging from the smoke to get into proper vision, was the Königstiger of Faber Eisenherz. She ordered for all tanks to open fire, but all the shells bounced off harmlessly, the angled glacis was just too thick. Erika ordered her gunner to slam Faber’s gun mantlet with her own 88mm shell, but when that happened, the shell simply did nothing. The gun mantlet, one of the few frontal weaknesses of a Tiger II, was now gone. Then, the turret began to swing around them, the gun rapidly firing 88mm shells at an inhuman pace, and it was only after they were severely whittled down did Erika retreat.

“Come in, Erika. Progress?”

“We’ve been whittled down by Eisenherz, Commander! It’s just me, a Panther, and a Panzer IV J left of Platoon 2!”

“...I see.”  _ It’s only been five minutes since I last checked in with Erika, and now Eisenherz has taken most of them down too… _ ”Pull back and regroup with  _ Panzerjager _ . They should have the firepower to deal with him easily.”

“Roger that!”

Emi Kojima, in her signature Jagdpanther, grinned when she saw the sequence of her Jagdpanther blazing to life, firing it’s 88mm shell, which impacted cleanly with the Hetzer 38(t), taking it out. “Yes! Finally I’ve gotten my revenge!” Her crew seemed to share the sentiment, cheering as their dreaded arch-enemy, the Hetzer, was taken out. The rest of Panzerjager was doing just great, no losses save for the Marders they had sent out. Most of them were taken out, although the Marder IIIs were still up and running from their cover. But then: A shell suddenly flew from the left and shredded off Emi’s Jagdpanther’s left rack. Emi’s face froze in shock before her PTSD of getting her tracks shot off kicked in and she screamed, looking for the perpetrator. To the left of the tank destroyer formation, was the Stug III F, Type 3 Chi-Nu, Type 89B, and Porsche Tiger were quickly moving in to relieve their allies. “Crap, to our left-!” it was too late. Hoshino, in the Porsche, took careful aim and sent an 88mm shell right into Emi’s Jagdpanther, and it’s white flag went up. “DAMN IT!”

Before any of the other Ooarai tanks could deal more blows, nor could Kuromormine’s tank destroyer force could retaliate against the former, one of the empty abandoned concrete buildings behind the Panzerjager formation suddenly blew up in a great blast of dust, accompanied by the familiar sound of an 88mm KwK 36. At first, some of the girls of the Panzerjager sighed in relief that backup had arrived. Until it fired right into the rear of one of the Jagdtigers taking it out. From across the ditch, Miho watched as the newly arrived Tiger I turned it’s turret to 9 o’ clock, towards her own back up, and she breathed in sharply when she recognized the balkenkreuz on the side of it’s turret. “That Tiger belongs to the Stahlrattes!” she called into her radio. “Hana, take the shot!” The Panzer IV H roared to life with a 75mm shell, which then crashed into the enemy Tiger, and did nothing against its thick additional armor. “Mako get us out of here!”

“Got it.” Mako pulled the gear into reverse, before rotating the Panzer around and driving off at top speed, barely dodging a shell fired at them.

The Porsche Tiger bounced a shell itself, while the Panzerjager force was stuck between killing the Stahlratte Tiger or taking out Ooarai. “Screw this!” one of the Jagdtigers began to traverse to get it’s gun towards the Tiger 1, but said Tiger then turned it’s gun right around and fired into the rear of the Jagdtiger. One of the Jagdpanzers fired a shell that impacted the side of the Tiger, but the additional armor caused it to bounce.

“[Driver, reverse out of here. We’ll be stuck here.]” Inside the Tiger, from the commander’s seat, Carl turned around, seeing the Panzerjager force beginning to turn to face him.

“[Jawohl.]” The driver then put the Tiger into its custom 2nd reverse gear, and soon it had reversed out of the open spot and back into the concrete building. Twisting the driving sticks, the Tiger turned about before going back into top gear and driving away.

Carl opened the cupola to look out, and just as they cleared the building and into the open field, he shouted, “[Halt!]” and the Tiger came to a sharp stop, just as an 88mm shell destroyed the ground in front of it. Straining forwards Carl spotted the distant shape of a Panther, Panzer IV and a Tiger II rushing towards him, and in pursuit was a more familiar Konigstiger. Carl pressed on his ear piece. “[Lennard’s been taken out. They have a tank destroyer force up on that ridge, what should we do?]”

“[We’ll join up and make a last stand then. We’ve hit the zenith of this practice battle.]” Faber commanded. He was sitting out of the cupola as well.

“[Roger that. Driver, reverse out of their line of fire.]” the Driver nodded, putting the Tiger into 2nd reverse gear. The three Kuromorimine tanks suddenly veered off to try and flank Faber with a drift, but Faber’s Konigstiger suddenly spun around, dodging and deflecting the shells fired by Erika and her comrades and putting himself right next to Carl. From behind the hill that made up the ditch, the rest of the Ooarai tanks, the Panzer IV H, Type 89B, Stug III F, Porsche, Type 3 Chi-Nu, and Mark IV appeared, taking up positions. Then, from atop the ridge itself came the rest of the Kuromorimine Panzerjager force. And then to make things worse, the 3rd Platoon, led by Koume, was spotted from a large dust cloud. It was made mostly of Panthers, with a few Panzer IVs and IIIs.

“[Oh my god...If I knew there were going to be this many tanks I should’ve brought Peter and Konrad. Or maybe even ‘them’]” Faber groaned. “[Alright then, let’s get this over with, eh?]”

“[Of course Faber.]” Carl grinned in anticipation.

With a deep breath, Faber shouted one command before everything else was drowned out by the sounds of dozens of tank guns. “[Feuer!]”


	35. Repairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Stahlrattes, KMM, and Oorai repair their tanks, with a nice side of exposition!

Maho watched and listened as from her radio, and from drone footage, absolute chaos reigned. The Ooarai tanks were firing and scattering, the Kuromorimine tanks tried to keep a formation but found themselves splitting up as well, and meanwhile, the two Stahlratte Tiger I and II were dodging and weaving any shells. Well, except for Carl who took a 128mm shell to the flank in his Tiger 1. Faber and his crew were expertly maneuvering the Tiger II to dodge any shells, but Maho noticed a pattern that arose. Whenever something like a 75mm shot at his flank, which was heavily reinforced, Faber would ignore it. If something like an 88mm got to his flank, he would avoid it the best he could. If one of the Jagdtigers tried to attack him at any angle, Faber would use his superior speed to flank and if possible, destroy the Jagdtiger as he did for one of them. The battle initially started more organized, with all the sides just taking shots at each other until Koume and Platoon 3 crashed right into them all and then Faber’s Konigstiger began to drift and dodge-things devolved very quickly to say the least. “Alright, halt!” Maho firmly commanded, and the battle quickly stopped. “I think that’s enough for now. Return to base and begin repairs.”

About five to seven minutes later, Maho watched as a number of tanks from Ooarai, Kuromorimine, and Faber’s Tiger II came into view. During the chaos, Ooarai and Kuromorimine had been whittled down to only a few left. For Ooarai, the Mark IV, Type 89B(somehow) Type 3 Chi Nu had survived the fighting. The rest were all taken out in the chaos, and the Porsche Tiger experienced yet another engine breakdown, meaning it had to be towed back to the base by its few allies and some of the Kuromorimine tanks. Speaking of Kuromorimine, most of them were wiped out in the chaos as well, despite having a clear numbers advantage. Namely, Koume, and a few Panzer IV H and J variants survived the battle, leaving Kuromorimine with around seven tanks remaining from the final chaotic battle. However, the tank that stood out the most to Maho was Faber’s Konigstiger. Not only because it was probably one of the most beaten looking tanks of the ones that survived, but also because it was towing a defeated Jagdtiger. All on its own as well, no less. Following all the surviving tanks were a number of large trucks carrying the defeated tanks, some of the heavier ones being towed by the aforementioned survivors. Maho suddenly perked up when she heard a different engine, and this time much closer to her. Turning around, she saw a kubelwagen colored tan, and inside were some familiar faces. “Peter, Otto, Hans. What’re you doing here?” There was also one man she didn’t recognize, who wore his uniform unbuttoned.

“[Guten tag.]” Otto replied politely. He was in the driver’s seat. “I thought that we should come and watch the battle, but I guess we’re too late for it?” Otto’s question answered itself, considering there were a number of tanks in the distance being towed back to base. “I guess we’ll stay to help you with repairs as well then.”

“Really? Thank you then. And Peter,” Peter jumped. “Thanks for your help in that battle against Saunders. The others said you were terrific.”

“A-Ah, thanks!” Peter blushed a little at the compliment. The others laughed at Peter’s bashfulness.

“Oh, hey Peter!” Just arriving at the small command area, Koume waved and smiled at her fellow tanker. Peter waved back, grinning. Hopping from her Panther, Koume went over to Peter and immediately began to fill him in on what he’d missed. If it weren’t for the fact that Peter was a soldier from a different time, they would’ve looked like a pair of good friends. This fact caused the others in the kubelwagen to smile and for Maho to gain the silent expression of a jealous or protective mother/older sibling.

“Ah, right, [Frau Nishizumi,] this is Konrad, the other Panther commander. I think Peter told you about him?” Hans pointed to the man sitting in the back, who winked.

“Yeah I remember. He’s a womanizer?”

“[Ja.]” Oddly, Konrad didn’t really object or say anything. He just sat in the back and looked smug. Hans dismounted from the backseats and began to walk to where the battle beaten tanks were coming to a stop. Peter hopped out of the kubelwagen soon after, following Hans and Koume back to the various tanks, while Otto just pulled out a toolbox and cracked his neck.

About a half-hour later, when they moved all of the beaten and damaged tanks into the spacious Kuromorimine tank workshops, they got to work, repairing the tanks. In particular, many girls were standing around Faber’s Tiger II, while it’s commander just sat atop, scowling lightly at the unwanted attention. Inside the Konigstiger, Faber’s driver tried to get the beast started, but then the engine sputtered. “Looks like towing the Jagdtiger pushed the engine.” Climbing out of the driver’s hatch, he continued. “Come on, let’s get this thing out of here.” The two Germans climbed over the turret, and opened up the engine compartment. The Leopon Team, who were repairing their Porsche Tiger nearby, suddenly shot up, excited to see the engine of the Tiger II.

Unscrewing the bolts and screws connecting the engine of the Tiger II, Leopon craned to look closer to see Faber and his driver lift out...one of the smallest tank engines they’d ever seen in a Heavy Tank. “What the…” The four girls gawked.

Otto suddenly popped up from behind the Porsche Tiger, jumping over it to help Faber and his driver put it on a stand to begin repairing the once overtaxed engine. Grinning at the expressions of the Leopon Team, Otto then gave an explanation. “This actually isn’t a German engine, it’s an engine we salvaged from one of those Allied UHLS Tanks.”

“Oh, that makes sense actually. You girls remember what the UHLS is right? We saw it in that match where we teamed up with Pravda.” Satoko said. Her team nodded. “Well no wonder that the Tiger II is so fast, it’s engine is meant for a super heavy tank. How much horsepower does it produce?”

“945 horsepower, I think.” Otto replied nonchalantly as he began to work on the engine.

“What. With an engine like that it’s more like an MBT then!” someone was heard exclaiming loudly. “What’s the top speed?”

Faber stood doing nothing but walking around in circles, as Otto was doing all the repairing himself. “I think it can be around 55 km/h, and a few times we’ve gone faster but then the engine would burst into flames. So we tend to stay around 48 km/h when going down somewhere like a road or getting into a good ambushing spot.” Faber found himself smirking at the shocked expressions of the Kuromorimine tanker girls and the Leopon Team. “On a side note, we still slow down cross country, but not too much. We can still retain good speed.”

“Wow…”

Maho sat outside the tank workshops with Miho, talking about all the upcoming battles and matches. “Apparently, there’s been talks of setting up this massive battle. We’re split up in the style of WW2 and we try to capture the other team’s base.”

Miho raised her eyebrows. “Wow...a new kind of battle then?” It sounded very interesting to her.

“Yes.” Maho nodded. “Apparently all the schools will be participating. Except for Ooarai, we haven’t told you about it yet. So what about it? Will you join us?” Miho nodded enthusiastically, causing Maho to chuckle at her little sister. “Yes?”

“Of course! It’ll be great to command a team with you again, onee-chan!” Miho exclaimed loudly and enthusiastically.

“Heh...Me too.” Maho smiled. It wasn’t a smirk or any such smile, it was a genuine smile of joy. “You know...I miss when we were together at Kuromorimine. It was just the two of us and the Sensha-do team, together in a sport and fighting whatever came our way. It was nice.”

Miho smiled even more than before. “Me too. Although…” Maho tipped her head, her smile fading a little. “Ooarai uses both Allied and Axis tanks, so which side will we join?”

“Well...You use mostly Axis tanks, so most likely you’ll be joining the Axis side. The Axis side is made of the school’s you’d expect.” Maho paused to begin counting off the schools, holding up her fingers. “Us at Kuromorimine, Anzio, Chi-Ha-Tan, Jatkosota, Bellwall, Count, Blue Division, and the other Axis Themed schools. The Allies are made of Saunders, St. Glorianas, Pravda, BC Freedom, Maginot, Bonple, and Koala. And the other Allied themed schools too.” 

“That’s...a lot of schools. Where will this take place even?” Miho wondered aloud.  _ Really, where? _

“Well the match is still some time away, and until then we’ve only got the basics down. That the battle should use the aforementioned base capture rules, and that the schools can essentially field as many tanks as needed. That’s why I’ve got a question for the Stahlrattes.”

“Hm?”

Maho glanced at the tank workshops, seeing through the open doors, Peter and Koume talking while the other Stahlrattes repaired tanks and chatted. “I’m thinking of having Faber and his men as commanding officers.” Faber himself was helping to replace the treads and wheels of Emi’s Jagdpanther, where he made it look easy by lifting the heavy wheels with ease. “Saunders and Pravda will have the most tanks, and thus the Allies will have a huge numbers advantage. But if we can get Faber and his men on our side, we can make up any lack of numbers with strategy...But it’s those Allied Soldiers that concern me the most.”

Miho raised an eyebrow. Maho sounded legitimately concerned. “How so? They’ve only fought in one battle, and that was against you and Saunders.”

“Exactly. What if the Allied side got that so-called Green Day to fight for them? Then they’d have eight unkillable super heavy tanks on their side, and they’d be able to do...well, a lot.” Maho turned to look at her younger sister. “I don’t let myself be intimidated but...these soldiers. They actually scare me a bit.”

“R-really?” Miho asked, her eyes widening that her sister was scared for once.

Maho stood up, looking around. A cool breeze was blowing, and the sun was licking the horizon. In the distance, the many other school ships were quite visible, casting shadows. “If they’ve seen real combat, then that makes them the strongest tankers of us all. It’s not easy to train people to not crack under pressure, to keep going forwards. That’s what the Nishizumi-Style is for.”

Suddenly, heavy boots were heard behind the two Nishizumi-sisters, who spun around to see Faber walking towards them, apparently done with repairs. “Go on. I’m just taking a breather.” he said, gesturing for Maho to keep talking.

“Well...it’s hard to describe, really.” Maho glanced downwards, trying to piece together what it was that she was trying to say. “I think it’s the way you’ve gained experience in tank warfare that bothers me.”

Faber nodded, adjusting his peaked cap. “Well...It’s harsh, if you ask me. I find it unfortunate that I had to learn how to fight the hard way, and it’d be very untrue if I didn’t say that your tank sport is much better.” Faber paused, watching as Peter and Koume talked and laughed together, and as the KMM Maus rolled around in the field, idling waiting. “But...That’s how war is. We had to learn to fight with our very lives, where things could go sour in less than a second.” Faber paused, before giving a warm smile to the Nishizumi sisters. “So I’m glad that you girls can have the luxury of not having such pressure on you. I would give up on killing, but...I pledged to fight for the Fatherland, and that’s what I intend to do until it or I die.”


	36. Nothing goes wrong for Peter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nothing goes wrong for Peter

Peter laid on his stomach, peering through a pair of binoculars. Concealed behind a number of bushes in a small grove, he watched as a number of M4 Shermans rolled by down the road. _One British Firefly, four short barrel 75mm Shermans, and one more with the longer 76mm gun. Right, I should get ready._ Standing up, he briefly touched his throat worn microphone. “[Gunner, are you ready?]”

“[Jawohl.]” Peter’s gunner grinned inside. _If they try and wiretap, they won’t be able to tell. We’re Germans after all._ “[Permission to begin firing?]”

“[Offenes Feuer]” Mere feet away, covered in bushes, Peter’s Panther G roared, sending a 75mm shell right into one of the M4 Shermans. Peter grinned with satisfaction as he watched the Firefly go up in smoke, and a white flag popped out of the turret. The Shermans began to scramble for Peter’s position, which was a small, forested hill with a flat top. Perfect for sniping. A mere three seconds later and the gun roared again, cutting down the M4A1(76). Climbing back into the turret through the back hatch, Peter reached for the overall radio piece, which his radio operator gladly handed over. “Koume, how’re things on your end?”

“Good. We’ve run into a few of Saunders’ tank destroyers, but we took them out. I lost two Panthers though. What about you, Peter?” Koume’s voice buzzed over the radio.

“We’ve just started opening fire on a Sherman tank column. They don’t know we’re on the hill right now. So we’re alright. Did Maho or Faber give any orders yet? I’ve been doing radio silence in case they try to wiretap.”

“None yet. Maho is just telling us to hold our positions and wait for Saunders. Faber has just been watching this all unfold.” Koume paused as a 75mm gun roared on Peter’s end. “You sound busy. I’ll check in with you later, over and out.” and the radio went back to silence. Climbing back out of the turret, Peter scoped back in with his binoculars. All the Shermans but one M4A1 were left, in which the cupola was opened and Peter barely saw a hand throw out several smoke grenades around the tank manually. Peter’s gunner grinned for real at the feeble attempt at covering herself. The smoke may have obscured her position but as the M4A1 began to drive out of the smoke, it was cut down by another shot from Peter’s Gunner.

“[And that’s the last one. What next Peter?]” Peter’s gunner asked, turning around to see his young commander.

Right on queue, the radio crackled so the entire crew could hear. And from it, they heard the familiar voice of their direct commanding officer. [Peter, join up with the rest of the other Panthers. The Panzer IIs and IIIs report that the Americans are going to make a massive charge, and considering you’ve been spending the last half an hour cutting down their tank columns, they’ll most likely try and overwhelm you with numbers. Got it?]”

“[Jawohl, kommandant Faber.]” Peter climbed into the commander’s seat of his Panther, closing the hatch tightly behind him. “[Driver, get us to where the others are waiting. I believe they're in a forest in the middle of the field. I’ll radio Koume and she should be able to tell you if she sees us.]”

“[Of course Peter.]” putting the German Medium Tank into forward gear, it rumbled down the hill’s path, before continuing down the main road, passing the defeated M4 Shermans and their crews, who watched as the war beaten Panther roared by at a surprisingly quick speed. “[Hey Peter?]”

“[Ja?]” the boy said.

“[What do you think of that Koume girl?]” Peter’s driver asked.

Peter jumped, somewhat caught off guard by such a question. “[W-well I think she’s a good commander, so I’m glad we get to fight together.]”

“[No, not her skills. I meant personally, outside of battle.]” Peter jumped again, this time blushing. “[You and that Koume girl really like talking a lot, did something happen between the two of you after that battle against the American school?]”

“[N-No!]” and Peter went back to being his meek, 16 year old self rather than a Panther tank ace. “[I mean...I think she’s a good friend, we’ve got a lot in common. A surprising amount actually, and I think she’s nice and easy to talk to. I-it’s nothing more than that though.]”

Peter’s gunner cut in. “[They held hands.]” he added calmly.

Peter’s entire face turned red. “[Gunner!? I t-thought I told you-]” the damage was already done. The rest of Peter’s crew were looking at him with renewed interest with the new nugget of knowledge. Knowledge that totally wouldn’t give Maho(or Erika, or anyone at Kuromorimine, really)a reason to “accidentally” put Peter out of a fight with an injury. And knowledge that now everyone could tease Peter with. “[L-look it was raining and stuff, we talked, and then I thought I’d hold her hand to get warm, that’s all!]” Peter explained bashfully.

“[Really? You and Koume were blushing though. And you looked like you were enjoying it too.]” Peter’s gunner continued to tease his commander, which prompted Peter to kick him in the shoulder. “[Ow.]” the gunner said in fake pain. Even though Peter was a soldier of the Fatherland, he wasn’t very strong. It made sense though, considering he was only 16 while everyone else in the Stahlrattes were in their mid-twenties. The teasing and berating continued until the radio crackled.

“Peter? We see you.” Koume’s voice called out.

“[H-huh!? Ah, right! Sorry!]” Peter jumped high.

“What? Sorry I didn’t catch that, you...said that in German?” Koume raised an amused eyebrow from her commander’s seat. They took German at Kuromorimine, and Koume considered herself fluent, but she chose to tease Peter instead of responding.

“Ah, s-sorry. Yeah, I think I can see you know, I’ll tell my driver to go over to where you're at. [Driver, move us over to where Koume and the other’s are.]”

“[Gotcha.]” Peter’s driver turned the steering sticks to the left, bringing the Panther into position before going straight forwards into a small forest. Breaking through and entering the empty area behind the bushes and trees, the veteran Panther crew looked and saw several other Panthers, along with a few Panzer IV Hs and a familiar Tiger II. Said Tiger II then had its cupola opened up, and it’s commander poked her head out.

“Took you long enough!” the silver-haired commander yelled.

“Ehhhh, sorry Erika.” Peter moaned as he climbed to stand in his Panther’s cupola. “Anyways,” Peter’s crew straightened, which Koume and Erika could feel as well. Peter was about to get serious again. “Where’s the Americans? We’re going to ambush them here?”

“Yup. Keep an eye out though, they could try and flank us.” Erika replied.

“Koume, should I go cover our flank?”

Koume shook her head right away. “You have one of the best gunners, and you're also our flag tank, so we can’t risk having you get flanked and shot, Peter.” Koume gestured towards the blood red flag attached to Peter’s Panther, signifying that he was the flag tank.

“Ah, alright then. Thanks.” The Panther G turned around, facing it’s armor towards where they came. Erika growled. “Hm?”

Erika growled. “Nothing.” _Hmph. Being so friendly with us, especially with Koume…_

One of the Panzer IV H commander’s radioed Erika. “Vice-Commander Erika, the Panzer IIs are saying Saunders is getting closer. ‘Get ready in three minutes’ Sanguo says.”

“I see. Panzer IIs,” Erika commanded. “Follow Saunders, but stay out of sight. Once we spring our ambush, attack them while their guns and armor are turned around. Sanguo, use your Panzer III to take out the more powerful Shermans, got it?”

“Gotcha Erika!” Sanguo radioed back. Adjusting her large, circular glasses, Sanguo watched as her squadron of Panzer IIs kept their pace. From a high hill, they were able to read Saunders’ movements and relay them with little flaw. They also had a few skirmishes with Saunders’ scout tanks, which consisted of M22 Locusts and M2A4s. Fortunately, they had only lost four Panzer IIs out of the ten, and Sanguo’s Panzer III J made quick work of any unlucky scout tanks. “Scout tanks, did you hear that?”

“Yes ma’am!”

Three minutes later…

“There.” Peter pointed out. Around 300m away, on the main dirt road, was the main force of the Saunders team. Many, many Shermans, some of which were Fireflies and Easy Eights, and concerningly for Kuromorimine, several Jumbos. Through his binoculars, Peter could see that Kay was in one of these Jumbos, as she sat atop the turret, her legs hanging in the commander’s hatch. Kay was looking around for any Kuromorimine tanks that could ambush them. They were forming a sort of shell pattern, covering the flanks of their flag tank, an M26 Pershing which had a blue flag, with their Shermans. _Well they're certainly using numbers to their advantage._ “Get ready to open fire.” The other Panthers, Panzer IV Hs, and Erika’s Tiger II sat, ready and waiting to begin their barrage. But the battle started, not from Kuromorimine firing a shot, but rather, an M18 Hellcat firing a shell right into one of the Panzer IV Hs rear, sending its white flag up.

“Crap, they’ve flanked us!” Erika cried into her radio. “Panzer IVs, bombard Saunders! Me and the Panthers will deal with the tank destroyers.”

“Erika,” Peter began to object. “We need our heavier guns if we want to take out that M26 Heavy. Have the Panzer IVs deal with those Hellcats.”

“Rrrgh. Alright then, change of plans, Panzer IVs, you deal with the tank destroyers, the rest of us will bombard Saunders!” Erika turned her Tiger II back around mid turn to face the Saunders formation, who had begun to turn towards the sound of the fighting. “Open fire!” and the forest camouflage was blown apart from the force of all the guns firing. Erika watched with satisfaction as a Sherman Jumbo was too late to turn and was knocked out of the match by her Tiger IIs 88mm gun.

“Prioritize the Fireflies and Easy Eights! Especially the Fireflies, they can penetrate our armor frontally!” Peter called out. A few shells bounced off the front of his Panther, one coming close and hitting his mantlet, but doing nothing. “[Feuer!]” and Peter’s gunner sniped down a Firefly. “[Feuer!]” The gun didn’t fire. Peter dropped himself down into the turret. “[What’s wrong?]” he said to his loader, who was stuck holding a shell.

“[Ah, sorry I just...I got this bad feeling when I picked up this shell.]”

“[It’s probably nothing.]” Peter replied firmly. “[Load it.]”

“[Alright. Clear!]” the loader yelled over the clanging against the Panther’s armor.

Then, Peter’s gunner opened fire on a Sherman Easy Eight, which had been firing at their cupla for some time. The shell struck true, smashing into the front armor of the Sherman. Then it went silent. Peter sighed in relief. _Yeah, it’s probably nothing...Wait..._ Peter watched confused as the crew of the Sherman suddenly jumped out like they were on fire. Then, one of them came out. And she was on fire, but she ripped off her jacket, which was the only part that was burning. That same girl ran back to the Sherman and reached into the driver’s hatch, pulling at someone. It was the driver, but Peter could barely see much from 300m away, not even the burning girl. _Why’re they bailing out in the middle of a firefight? It’s much safer in the tank._ The girl succeeded in pulling out the driver, and Peter got his answer seconds later, when the entire Easy Eight exploded, sending it’s turret sky high and creating a fireworks display of detonated ammunition.

Several minutes before…

Bailey lounged back in her seat as the co-driver and co-axial gunner of a Sherman Easy Eight. She fingered the trigger of the M1919 .30 cal machine gun, before she turned her head backwards to look at her commander. Emma, a girl with her coffee brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore the standard Saunders Sensha-do uniform, as well as an American flag motif bandanna around her neck. To Bailey’s right was Maya, the main-driver of the Easy Eight. A girl with reddish-brown hair and glasses. _What do tanks need a co-driver anyways? Bullets are useless against tanks unless they have paper thin armor and it’s not like someone’s gonna get knocked out by a shell or something...I guess it’s for when the concussive force of a shell is too much._ Bailey herself was a girl with average features, green eyes and black hair, bangs forward. She used to wear glasses, but when in a tank, she’d wear eye contacts instead.

Emma was in the middle of giving out a command when she stopped. “Ah hold on, Kay’s calling.” Emma paused to listen to Kay’s commands.

“Alrighty everyone, listen up. We’re gonna move our flag tank, the M26 Pershing, down the southern main road. We’ll cover it on both sides, that way Kuromorimine can’t ambush us. Then, we can take em out with our Fireflies, Easy Eights, and the M18s! Sound good girls?”

“Yeah!” Emma cheered enthusiastically. “Alright girls, let’s get into formation! Alright May, you know what to do.”

“Gotcha.”

Suddenly, a new message came onto the radios of all Saunders tanks. “This is B Platoon, we’ve been wiped out.”

“Eh!?” Kay gawked from within her Sherman Jumbo. “W-what happened?”

“Well, we got attacked from somewhere, and before we could get away we all got sniped. I think it’s that Peter guy again.”

“Dang, really? Argh, and we’ve already been losing our lighter tanks to Kuromorimine’s scouting force. And we’ve got that kid now...Oh well, we’ll just play out our plan and see how it goes!” Kay exclaimed, perking right up.

“Ehhh, are you sure Kay?” Alisa groaned into the radio. “Kuromorimine might try and ambush us, and even if we do our shell formation, they can still do a lot of damage.”

“Ah, your right about that...Hmmm, alright, if we get ambushed, I’ll send the Hellcats to flank them, that way they’ll be caught between our Tank Destroyers and us! The ambushers are ambushed!”

“Sounds good.” Naomi replied calmly. She looked around for targets in her M4 Firefly, and so far, she managed to claim a few Panzer IIs and a Panther that got too far out from the formation.

Soon, they were in the shell formation. Emma found herself covering the right flank of the M26 Pershing flag tank. “Gunner, get our gun turned to 2 o’clock. We wanna be able to retaliate if we get ambushed like Kay said we would.”

“Roger.” Emma’s gunner turned the turret of the Easy Eight to the right, getting the 76mm long barreled gun ready for a potential ambush. And come that ambush did. Suddenly, from the woods was the sound of a 76mm gun, and with that, Kay knew that her trap had been sprung.

“Alright! We’ve found Kuromorimine! Everyone, get the armor turned around and start firing! We’ve got numbers on our side!” Kay commanded, cheerful and peppy as ever. With that, Maya began to turn the Easy Eight around, when: _CLANG_

“Agh! Oh, that was just a ricochet, thank goodness.” a shell from one of the Kuromorimine Panthers had slid off of the front of the glacis, having aimed too far right from its gunner’s perspective. Emma commanded Maya to continue turning the tank so the heavy armor was facing it and for her Gunner to get the 76mm gun turned. Once the gun was facing the enemy Panthers, Emma immediately called for the guns to “Rip 'em a new one!” The 76mm long barreled gun began to open fire, although not to any effect against the thickly armored Panthers, and especially against the Kuromorimine Vice-Commander’s Konigstiger. In the Co-Driver and Co-Axial gunners seat, Bailey opened fire with the M1919, spraying armor piercing tracers about the bushes and trees in which the Kuromorimine forces were firing from.

“Hey, Emma?”

“What’s up Bailey?”

“You think that German kid is here? I’m kinda worried he’ll suddenly swing out of nowhere and wipe us out like when we first used the Pershings and tank destroyers.”

“What? Nah, he’s their flag tank, to put himself here? That’s suicide.” Emma replied confidently. Standing up a little, Emma looked into the commander’s cupola to get a better view. And right ahead of her, was an unfamiliar, partially-forest colored Panther G, and sitting in the cupola, was a brown haired boy. “Ah crap it’s the Jerry kid!” Just as Emma said this, a Firefly that was next to them was shot by the Panther G, sending up it’s white flag.

“I told you so!” Bailey yelled, as she continued to spray the area with tracers. They clanged off the armor harmlessly, but they _did_ expose the position of some tanks. “Crap, he’s aiming right for us!”

“Hold on!” Emma yelled, before she braced for the oncoming 75mm shell.

What happened next, none of the Easy Eight’s crew would ever be able to forget. Bailey held on for the oncoming impact of a shell against the hull, but instead, her eyes widened as the hull was blown open. Time felt like it suddenly crawled, and Bailey watched as the armor piercing shell ripped through the front armor, spraying out hot red shrapnel, travelled through the crew compartment, miraculously not hitting anyone directly, and slamming into the engine compartment with a blast. “Holy shit!” Bailey heard someone cry. Smoke began to engulf the crew compartment, filling Bailey’s lungs with scorching hot air, and she could smell oil and other liquids beginning to leak out.

“E-everyone, bail out! Bail out now!” Emma screamed. She opened her hatch, throwing herself out onto the grass, her loader and gunner quickly following from their respective hatches. Bailey tried to sit up and run, but her leg suddenly got caught on something. Opening her co-drivers hatch, she wretched herself from her seat, screaming in terror as she felt something hot on her back. Ripping off her jacket, she flung it onto the ground, where it burned. Miraculously, only her jacket caught fire.

“M-Maya, get out of there! Maya!?” Bailey yelled.

“O-oh god!” Emma could feel her legs beginning to go weak. Bailey climbed atop the burning Easy Eight, ripping open the driver’s hatch. What she saw struck her to the core. Maya, the driver of the Sherman Easy Eight, was covered in blood, bleeding from a wound in her right side. Gritting her teeth, Bailey grabbed Maya around the collar, pulling her out of the stricken Easy Eight, but she was stuck.

“Come on god damn it!” with one last surge of adrenaline Bailey finally pulled Maya out of the Easy Eight, falling back onto the ground. Emma and the rest of her crew grabbed Maya and Bailey, dragging them away from the Sherman, and just in time too...A mere five seconds later, the ammo cooked off. A large explosion from within the Sherman rang out for all to hear, with an accompanying fireball and blast, the Easy Eight’s turret was shot off into the sky from the explosion, while a column fireworks display of detonated ammo crackled and popped.

Just moments before, Kay was shouting out and replaying commanders to the other Shermans to concentrate fire on Peter and Erika, when Emma’s Easy Eight detonated. Kay instinctively threw her head down, and when she looked to her right, she felt nothing but utter shock and terror. The once proud and strong Easy Eight was now nothing more than a burning hull. The fighting effectively froze, just as Kay began to scream out a new command. “Cease fire, cease fire!” But no one needed the command, none of them had ever seen such a horrible scene play out. But a few had seen such scenes before.

Peter watched as the Sherman Easy Eight detonated. “[Alright, ne-wait…]” Peter squinted. _Wait, I’m not in Europe, why am I giving out a command to fire? No, I have to, if I hesitate, we could get killed-wait I’m not in the middle of a real warzone, this is all just a sport-but then why did that Sherman just explode? Oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no...._ Peter flinched at the sounds of shells flying by. But there weren’t any. His eyes darted around, looking for something to grab onto before his consciousness lapsed into delusion. He saw the Saunders flag tank-wait, the flag tank? Then why was it aiming straight for him, no flag on it’s hull, ready to kill him? And now there were more of them, him against an entire squadron of Pershings and Sherman Fireflies. But Saunders only had 6-7, not over a dozen. To his right, there should’ve been Koume’s Panther, and her familiar face, but instead, Peter only saw a destroyed Panther, burning, dying. Peter felt sweat and tears going down his face as he was forced to remember one of many battles...There was a Konigstiger, but it was colored white, like the snow, not the dark tan of Kuromorimine...There was a Tiger H1, under fire from half a dozen Shermans, a familiar voice buzzed in his ear, but he couldn’t make out what it was saying to him. The bullets and shells and explosions were too loud.

The entire Kuromorimine team froze in horror when they saw the Easy Eight detonate, and they stopped firing. They _had_ to stop firing. Koume felt her eye’s widen and her jaw dropped. She climbed out of her cupola, turning to look at Peter, who was at her right. Peter was frozen clutching the rim of his Panther’s cupola. “Peter?” Koume jumped down, ran over and climbed onto the turret. “Peter!” she practically yelled into his ear, but Peter was frozen, trembling, a stricken expression on his face.

 _Oh no oh no oh no oh no, what do I do? I’m not in Europe-but I’m fighting Shermans alongside other Panzers-but they don’t have the balkenkreuz, and they’re crewed by girls-but they're my allies, and the ones in front of me are my enemies, so that means to shoot them...right?_ Peter could feel a voice yelling at him, screaming, to do something. But whoever was yelling at him was doing nothing. The sounds of war and death and bullets and shells roared in his ears, drowning out the voice. He felt his conscious falling...falling down from where he was grounded in reality... _But-_ Peter’s stupor was shattered, when he felt someone slap him across the left cheek.

“Peter, snap out of it!” Koume screamed in his face.

“W-what?” Peter sounded so weak that it was honestly surprising to himself, Koume, and his crew, who were waiting for Peter’s command. “W-what happened?” he squeaked.

“Your shell blew up that Sherman! Come on, we have to help!”

“W-R-right…” Peter took Koume’s outstretched hand, climbing out of his Panther. Touching down on the grass, he joined her in running towards the Saunders formation, with Peter’s gunner following with a first-aid kit. A few others tried to help, but they faltered. Erika was frozen in shock, she had never seen something like this before. As the trio neared the blown out Easy Eight, they spotted several other Saunders girls gathered around the Easy Eight’s crew, some of whom were applying first aid onto a girl who was laying on the ground, unmoving.

“Oh god...Get the med-kits!” Emma screamed at her teammates, as she put pressure on Maya’s wound. A large piece of shrapnel from the shell had torn straight through her side, and she was bleeding profusely. Bailey was on her knees, staring at her blood stained hands, tears dripping onto her hands. The others were trembling in shock, or trying to plug up Maya’s wound. Kay, Alisa, and Naomi were nearby, trying to radio Maho and Faber to stop the match, and that was when the Saunders girls finally noticed the two Germans and Kuromorimine commander running towards them.

“H-hey are you-” Peter tried calling out, but his voice snapped Bailey out of her catatonia. Grabbing a shovel that was part of the Sherman’s field kit, she screamed, leaping at Peter and cutting him on the shoulder with a hard swing. “AGH!” Peter cried out in pain. Kay and Alisa lept from the radio, grabbing Bailey to stop her from attacking Peter any further in pure rage. Peter, grabbing his wounded shoulder, felt his left arm instinctively grab at something within his jacket, and when he pulled it back out, he had a Mauser C96 in hand, fully loaded with real bullets.

Koume’s eyes widened at both Peter being attacked and the sight of his pistol. “Peter!” Peter fell backwards right onto her, the two fell over, his Mauser falling into the dirt from his hand. Peter’s gunner stopped to look at his commander, before continuing over to Maya to tend to her. His shoulder beginning to bleed, everything was beginning to become too much for Peter. Before he blacked out from the overwhelming emotions and the growing pain, he saw Maho and Faber arriving on the scene in a BMW Motorcycle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I hope this chapter is/was good! I haven't written many scenes nor stories where there are emotional scars and whatnot.


	37. In the belly of the beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Koume walks into the belly of a steel beast.

The match was a disaster to say the least. Maya was sent to the hospital for severe shrapnel wounds. Bailey had light burns on her back and shoulders, but it was something that could’ve been treated with a little first-aid kit and some gauze. Everyone else was fine, they only had some cuts and bruises from the shrapnel created by Peter’s shell. Speaking of Peter, he was bandaged up. Bailey’s brief fury had cut his shoulder quite badly, meaning he couldn’t use his left arm, but fortunately, Faber and Peter’s crew said he would recover his arm in about three or four days. The Saunders girls speculated about what caused the shell to punch straight through the Easy Eight’s front armor. Some of them said the carbon coating was defective and thus it failed to stop the shell. However, it didn’t take the Stahlrattes very long to find out the cause. Somehow, a real, sub-caliber, armor piercing shell with a tungsten core had been mixed in with the ones used for Sensha-do, and with that information out, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why the shell had gone through. It was a shell designed to kill people and destroy tanks, not play a sport. Some of the Saunders girls went as far as to speculate it was deliberate, but these theories were quickly shot down, because why would they try and kill some innocent girls? The two that shot down the aforementioned theories the hardest were Faber and Koume. “It was merely an accident, and that’s that.” Faber said firmly to shut them up.

However, as soon as he was bandaged up, Peter went back into the forest camp and didn’t return the next day. And Koume had something of his. She felt her emotions beginning to run as she walked into the deep, dark forest. It was unbelievably dark, despite it being the morning, and if she was attacked by a wild animal, she only had one thing with her. Peter’s Mauser C96, which he completely forgot about, but Koume hadn’t, and picked it up. Last night, she had done some digging and found out the specifics of the old pistol. Chambered in 7.63x25mm Mauser, ten bullets, and had a shorter barrel and grip, making it the Bolo variant. Despite the fact that she didn’t have the intent to shoot anyone with it, she kept it in the folds of her uniform, ready to shoot if something, or someone, attacked her. It felt very off, keeping the Mauser, it was like it had its own spirit, and it was a worn one.  _ Oh geez...I should’ve asked Miho to point me in the right direction, I’m totally lost here… _

Koume’s ears suddenly perked at the sound of several voices singing in english. “[I’ll give my all to the Southern cause, and die in the Southern army…]” they sang, along with the music of a banjo, fiddle, flute, and some others. Running towards the voices, she broke into a clearing, where she saw Willy Nathans and his cousins and brothers singing, but with Koume’s appearance, they quickly shut up. “Hey, you're that German girl, right?” one of them exclaimed, pointing a finger.

“W-well, yes, I’m not actually German though. Do you know where Peter is?” she asked as kindly as she could.

“Hmmmm.” Willy scratched his beard. “You talkin’ about that kid?” A firm nod was Koume’s answer. “Well, I don’t know where that boy is, Faber does though. And luckily for you, I know where he is.”

“R-really!? Thank you!” Koume thanked him with a bow.

“Yeah, just take a right from where I’m sitting, through this lil’ path here...should take you to a clearing where the Germans keep their tanks, last time I checked, Faber was there.” Without another squeak, Koume briskly left the circle of American Southrons. “[Now where were we? Ah, right...If I must die for home and land, my spirit will not falter! Here’s my heart and here’s my hand…]” their voices faded out as Koume continued down the path, occasionally dodging underneath branches and hopping over tree roots. After several minutes of walking, she had to push through a bunch of flora again, and when she did, she came into a large clearing. Directly opposite from her were six tanks. Two Tiger H1s, two Panthers, one G variant, which Koume recognized as Peter’s, the other was a D model, a somewhat familiar dark grey and green colored Tiger II H, and a dark, steel blue Panzer II, which had four 20mm autocannons instead of one. It had the word, “Sturmwind” written in white on the front. Taking a look to the left, she saw a large number of tools, and most disturbingly, shells. Through a break in the forest walls, Koume had spotted a clearing which held dozens of shells, well over a hundred. They were neatly separated into two piles. Looking to her right, Koume came face to face with the six foot tall generaloberst that was Faber Eisenherz.

“A-Ah!” Koume jumped high. Stuttering a little, she saluted him. “H-Hello, Mr. Eisenherz!”

Faber smiled, chuckling a little. “Just call me Faber, I’m not being your commanding officer or anything right now. You are Koume, right?” he tipped his hat respectfully. Even though he had his problems with Peter having been conscripted at such a young age, he could respect skill, no matter where it came from, and Koume was no exception.

“Y-yes, I’m Akaboshi Koume. It’s a pleasure to meet you on a more personal scale.” Koume bowed slightly. Faber raised an eyebrow for a single moment.

“I always found the way Japanese put their names confusing. Oh whatever. Well, Koume, what’re you here for? Peter’s talked about you plenty, although really only to me.”

“Eh? Really?”

“[Ja, frau.] He always says that you're a skilled commander of a Panther, and that you worked well alongside him whenever your school called him over for training. He also says you're very easy to talk to.” Koume raised her eyebrows. “Heh, if you ask me, you’re probably one of the few people he can consider a true friend outside of the Stahlrattes.” Koume blushed at the fact that Faber had just said. “So...I assume you want to talk to him, after everything that happened yesterday?”

“Yes sir.”

“Hmmm...The thing is, Peter is being a bit...well he’s quite down, so we’ve just left him alone, and I don’t think he’d want to leave ‘it’, which I can’t tell you nor can I show you…” Faber paused to think for a few seconds. “Alright, since I can’t show what our main tank is, I’ll have to blindfold you and bring you to him, is that alright with you?”

Koume hesitated for a moment, before remembering she had Peter’s Mauser with her. “Yes.” Without another word, Faber suddenly jumped behind her at an unbelievable speed, and put a blindfold over her eyes.

Having been picked up, Koume could only make out the sounds of Faber’s heavy footsteps. First, it was against dirt and leaves. Then, mysteriously, they began to go up.  _ Wait, up? _ This was accompanied by the sound of his ironshod boots against a metal object, telling Koume they were climbing a ladder. Then, they went back to going forwards flat, then down a hole, Faber landed with a clang. Faber finally put Koume back down, and taking her hand, began to lead her somewhere. Their shoes/boots clacked against an all metal floor, and when Koume reached out her left hand, which wasn’t being held, it touched cold metal. It felt like she was in a ship, or a bunker. And Faber’s hand...even though he was wearing gloves, it was cold. Very cold, like it was made of steel instead of flesh, muscles, bone, and blood.

“Here. You can take off the blindfold now, Koume.” Faber said to her. Reaching up and taking off the blindfold, Koume’s combat instincts went crazy. Everything around them was made of metal. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, there were even metal electric lamps illuminating the hallways, which heavily resembled those of a ship. Koume could tell right away they weren’t inside any sort of tank, but based on the lack of the sound of running machinery, they definitely weren’t in the interior of the Zuikaku, or in Koume’s case, the Graf Zeppelin. Faber gestured towards a metal door, which, like the rest of whatever it was they were inside, heavily resembled one used on a ship. “Peter is right in here. He was just sleeping earlier, should be drinking some coffee now. I,” Faber leaned against the wall. “Will be waiting here, to take you back. If I’m gone, just ask Peter to lead you out of the forest, he knows his way.”

“I-I see. What...is all of this?” Koume expressed her wonder at whatever it was they were inside.

“I can’t tell you, and neither can Peter nor any of my men. Just...talk with him, I think he’s been wanting to see you anyways.” Gulping, Koume took the door handle and twisted it until there was a resounding thump, indicating the door was unlocked, before she pushed it open. Inside was a large, rectangular room. It was tall enough that there within were six bunk beds, in which the person on top wouldn’t have to worry too much about hitting their head against the all metal ceiling. There were also a few boxes and basic nightstands sitting in-between the bunks. And sitting in the bunk closest to the door, was a shirtless Peter, who was sipping coffee. Coffee that he immediately spat out when he turned around to see Koume, who was blushing lightly at the fact that Peter wasn’t wearing anything to cover his top.

“K-Koume!? What’re you-” he yelped, his face turning a deep red. He grabbed his tanker jacket and yanked it on, trying to cover himself as quickly as possible. “You could’ve at least knocked!”

“W-Well me and Faber were talking just outside the door if you didn’t hear!” Koume retorted.

Peter blushed. “Y-yeah, well, I didn’t hear you then.” Peter tried buttoning up his shirt, but he gave up, considering Koume had literally seen everything about him. He wasn’t very muscled, that was for sure, but his body tone was on the fit side. Covering his left shoulder was a bandage, a reminder of Bailey’s fury and her shovel. “So u-um...whatcha here for?” Peter asked nervously.

“Well.” Koume reached into the folds of her school uniform, pulling out Peter’s Mauser C96 Bolo. “You dropped this back in that field, so I thought I’d give it back to you.” Peter reached out, taking back his Mauser.

“Huh, I was wondering if I dropped it or not. Thanks Koume.” he said, putting it back into its wooden leather holster.

“And uhm...I wanted to see if you were okay and everything.”

Peter gave her a comforting smile. “Don’t worry, my shoulder is alright. I’m mostly worried about those girls I almost blew up. I can’t use my arm though, hahah…”

Koume fidgeted on her feet. “Well, that’s good but...well, yesterday, after that Saunders Easy Eight blew up, you sorta seized up...” Peter’s smile flew from his face, quickly replaced with concern, concern for what Koume saw from him. “Peter, you just...you froze, you were shaking, there was this look of pain on your face and you cried, and you didn’t make a sound during it all...Peter...are you ok?” When Peter looked at the metal floor, Koume decided to sit down on his bunk next to him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“I, uh. It was nothing.” Peter’s voice sounded forced. “I just remembered something for a moment, and I went too deep into it, that’s all. Nothing to worry yourself about.” he waved Koume off.

Koume took a deep breath. “Peter.” Peter’s fake smile began to fade. “You cried, and based on everything you’ve told me about yourself and what you’ve gone through, you're not the kind of person to cry easily. Your eyes kept darting around too. You saw something, didn’t you Peter?” Koume said this all firmly. She turned Peter around, putting both hands on his shoulder and looking him dead in the eye. “Remember? You said it yourself, ‘we’re alike, you and I.’ You helped me, and I want to help you in return.”

“I...I’m really conflicted. I told you about how my first two crew’s perished, but...it’s hard to describe what it’s like to suddenly feel like you're not in control of yourself anymore.” Peter shuddered. “It’s horrible, Koume.”

“I know what that’s like. When I almost drowned that day, and Miho rescued me, I couldn’t stop remembering it. I lost control too...You freeze up, and there’s nothing you can really do…” Koume breathed in deep.

“...You don’t truly know if you're where you think you are…” Peter continued.

“You don’t know if you're seeing things or not…”

“...Then you just go cold and useless...Sometimes...I worry I’ll become a basket case one day…”

Forcing a small smile, Koume replied in a soft voice, “You’re not useless though. You helped me, and you’ve earned respect from a lot of people at Kuromorimine.” Koume took his battle worn hands into her soft own. “And you're not cold either. You’re still warm.”

Peter drew his knees up to his chest, sitting to face Koume with his entire body. “I-I...When I saw that Sherman explode, I tore myself apart right then and there, thinking of what to do. I didn’t know if I should’ve kept fighting, I started to get Panzerfahren and real warfare mixed up. I wanted to keep giving the order to fire because my body screamed at me that saying the order was the difference between life and death. Then I just lost control of myself, I couldn’t stop myself from remembering this one battle. I saw the enemy Pershing and their Fireflies, and I thought there were over a dozen of each. I tried to look at you, Koume, but I only saw a burnt down Panther. I tried to think of Erika and her Tiger II but I only saw Faber instead, and not the one you're familiar with. I literally didn’t see Erika and her Tiger II, I only saw a White Konigstiger. There was a Tiger H1, pinned down by the enemy, there were bullets and shells that didn’t exist...Arrrghhh…” Peter put his hands to his head like he was in pain. But he couldn’t stop himself from continuing to tell Koume, the floodgates were already open. “I was scared, I didn’t know if I should’ve ordered my gunner to move onto the next target and keep firing, or if I should’ve ordered a cease-fire and go help-I didn’t...I started to forget if we were doing a sport, if I was in Europe, fighting the British and American tank divisions. I didn’t know if I was in a life or death situation.” Peter’s voice cracked like he himself was going to break.

The mood had certainly become grim. Koume gave herself a few moments to think of a good answer, on how to comfort him. _Just like me...he was right...I tried to get over the drowning, but I couldn’t stop remembering what it was like, to be stuck in a tank headed straight to the bottom of a river. Peter’s like a powder keg. One little incident like the one yesterday and he can’t stop himself from remembering every horrible thing that’s happened to him because of tanks. I can’t really console Peter, can I? He’s a soldier, and he’s experienced full-blown war._ _.._ And unfortunately, Koume couldn’t come up with an answer. Well actually, she did have one, but she wasn’t sure if it was a good solution, but something is better than nothing. “Sounds horrible.”

“It is horrible. When you have to relive the moment where you nearly died, you can’t do anything. You just go weak.”

Koume looked back up at Peter, forcing a small smile to comfort the boy. “Don’t worry. I had to go through the same thing. And you aren’t in Europe, you're in Japanese waters, with your comrades.” Koume gently drew him into a hug. “We’re here for you. I’m here for you, Peter. You’re here, with us.” When Faber, waiting outside the door heard a single light, muffled sob, he knew Koume had indeed returned the favor.


	38. Tank Tour

“Better?” Koume asked Peter a few minutes later.

“Hm? Y-Yeah, I feel better now.” Peter stood up, still not wearing a shirt. He seemed much better though. “I guess I’ll ask Faber to guide you back home then, hold on a second.” Peter opened the door, before looking down both ways of the hallway. “[Faber? You there?]” Peter turned back into the room, a tired look on his face. “Of course, he’s gone.” he sighed.

“Eh? He left?” then Koume realized why he left.  _ Damn it, I knew I should’ve asked about him… _ ”W-well he said you would escort me out if he was gone, so…”

After a few seconds of thinking, Peter just sighed in defeat. “Aright. Do you have a blindfold or something?” Koume pulled out the white cloth Faber had used earlier, holding it out so Peter could tie it. Taking it, he gently tied it around her head, before he took her hand and began to guide her out of the steel halls. “Hey, Koume?”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t mind if I carry you a bit, right? We have to go up this one ladder and down another.”

“Yeah, I don’t mind at all.” All of a sudden, Koume felt herself being picked up, but not at all in the way she expected. Instead of a piggy back ride, Peter picked her up princess carry style.

“W-wait what am I doing? I can’t-argh!” Peter quickly placed Koume back down, before getting her to grab onto his shoulders and just hold on. Remember, this all happened while she was blindfolded. They went back up the ladder, then walked flat for a few moments, before they began to go down a rather tall metal ladder, just like before when Faber was bringing Koume in. “Alright, here we go.” Koume lowered herself off of Peter, touching the solid, grassy earth. Koume subconsciously reached out her hand again, and Peter’s callused hand too hers. As he pulled her along, Koume decided to glance at a tiny little peek. So raising her left hand to push up the blindfold ever so slightly, Koume saw an extremely tall, steel gray shape.

_ A turret? _ Koume thought before she suddenly felt her cheeks being pinched. “Ow! What-”

“Koume.” Peter said firmly. “No peeking, alright? Faber’s orders.”

“A-Ah, right. Sorry…” After being guided along by Peter for several more minutes, the two finally stopped.

“Alright, Koume. You can take the blindfold off now.” When Koume took off the blindfold, she found herself back in the clearing as before, with the Stahlrattes tanks. Interestingly, Peter seemed to be contemplating something nervously. “Mmmm...Do you wanna…” Peter kept trailing off trying to state his question.

“Yes?” Koume grinned.

“D-Do you wanna go in my Panther or something?” he said, tittering.

At first, Koume raised her eyebrows.  _ Why is he so embarrassed? It’s just a tank-Oh, wait...If we do go inside, it’ll just be the two of us. _ “Well, I won’t say no to getting to see the inside of a tank.” saying this, Peter gestured for her to come over to his Panther, which appeared to be in the middle of being painted a forest camouflage.

“Y-yeah, we probably should’ve gotten all the paint jobs done a long time ago.” he grinned nervously. And cutely. Peter took Koume’s hand and pulled her up, before opening the commander’s hatch and going in. Koume went into the Panther through the loader’s hatch. What was inside the turret was rather normal. The gun and everything looked the same, the optics, it all looked normal. However, taking a closer look, there were some interesting additions. “Right, so do you want me to tell you the things that are different in the turret or do you wanna look at it yourself?”

“I think I’ll let you explain things, Peter.”

“Alright, so…” Peter first pointed to the gunner sights. “The optics are different, so when you look through it, you can see to the left and right much more clearly.” Climbing over the gun breech, Koume peered into the optics. They had the same reticles, but the black borders were removed, effectively allowing the gunner full vision to the left and right sides. “Apparently, Otto did this so my gunner wouldn’t have to over rely on the commander, me, to point out targets.”

“How come?” Koume raised an eyebrow. Peter was literally right behind her, considering they were in the turret together. The gun sight was not made of one, but two separate scopes, meaning one could use the gun ambidextrously, with both eyes open or only one eye open, both left and right.

“Well...Otto said it was inevitable I would get hit by a bullet, or a shell, or god knows what and my crew had to deal with firing and driving by themselves. Only happened once, and that was when a 183mm shell caused me to hit the hatch, which I had fully closed.” Koume raised an amused eyebrow. “Ah, um, I meant to say that a 183mm HE shell blew up next to the tank, then I smashed my head into the hatch from the blast, yeah.”

“Ouch. What else is in here?”

“Well,” Peter pointed over to the loader’s area. “If you look there, around, the ammo racks are different.” Looking around, the racks were indeed different. Instead of being in their usual positions, there were a number of shells now stored directly in the sides of the turret. “We added them so my loader wouldn’t have to bend down to grab shells, he could just grab them straight from here and put them in. Useful, but it’s more cramped on the loader’s side. I think Otto also shortened the recoil guard, making it more compact. The only problem is, sometimes I get worried the compacted version will fail and the gun will hit the turret ring.”

“Well, you’ve been using this Panther for a few years, right? With the modifications too?”

“Yeah, I guess you're right, Koume. What else is there…Ah, right, the turret hydraulics. Otto decided to jam some extra hydraulics into the turret ring, and it runs on its own power, so we don’t have to rev up the engine to turn it. The fact that the traverse is so much faster is great, but…”

“But?”

“The hydraulics...they really don’t like getting hit. Whenever they do get hit, it takes forever to repair them all.” Peter slapped his pants. “Right, I think that’s everything for the turret, what else…” Koume smiled. Normally, Peter was a very nervous boy, especially when they first met. Now he was acting more confident and strongly, so instead of a nervous 16 year old, there was a confident one. Koume decided to begin climbing over to the other side of the tank, putting a hand on Peter’s chest by accident(which caused him to blush instantly)to help get over. Then the hatch opened.

“[Peter, you in-]” Konrad looked down at his fellow Panther commander and the girl right next to him. Then he grinned naughtily. “[I see, I see. Well, I’ll leave you two alone, tschüss!]” he then proceeded to flip backwards, landed on the ground, and walked away whistling. Koume blushed, because she knew what Konrad had said despite it being in German. Peter blushed because it looked as if they were in an incriminating pose.

Peter jumped up with absolute haste, sticking his blushing self out of the cupola and yelling, “[It’s not what you think, pervert!]” but Konrad was long gone, having run off like he was being chased by Faber for trying to get touchy with a girl. “Argh!” Peter went back into the Panther, this time making sure to keep the hatch closed tightly. “Right, where was I?”

“You...said that was everything in the turret?”

“Ah, right.” Peter lowered himself into the driver and radio operator’s area. Putting himself in the driver’s seat, Koume followed, sitting in the hull gunner and radio-operator seat. “Right, so...if it wasn’t obvious during our battles together, things like the transmission are fixed, so they don’t break down anymore.”

“Really?” Koume wondered.

“[Ja.] Last time we had to fix the transmission, that was because a shell went through the lower glacis and hit it. Unless you count those Panzerfahren battles we’ve been fighting, then that’s more because of maintenance. There’s also a second reverse gear on here.” Koume looked over, and indeed there was an additional reverse gear on the gear box. “I think the transmission is a derivative of the one used on the Ferdinand Tank Destroyers, if I recall, so on second gear we can go as fast reverse as we can go forwards.”

Koume raised a confused eyebrow, pointing at the first gear from over the radio. “Then, why didn’t Mr. Bastler just change the first gear to do that instead?”

“I dunno. He just put a whole new gear instead of just modifying the pre-existing gear. I guess it’s if we want to reverse at the speed of a snail or something, hahah.” Koume ended up sharing a brief laugh with Peter. “Other than that, I think that’s everything. Well, except for the hull and coaxial machine guns. We replaced the MG-34s with MG-42s, which are also modified so changing the barrel isn’t a nightmare. Unless you count the fact that Faber has a watercooled MG-42, but that one’s more bulky, so we just fire the machine guns in short bursts, or let the barrel cool down. But...it doesn’t really matter, does it? Because we fight tanks, not infantry.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right about that.” Koume checked her phone for the time, and saw a text from Maho and Erika. “Uh oh.”

“What?”

“Erika and Maho are saying I’ve been gone for almost three hours and I forgot to tell them if I was going somewhere. And now they’re already looking for me.”

“Yikes, should we get going?” Peter cracked a nervous grin, remembering his first meeting with Erika and Maho. He gestured towards the loader and commander’s hatch.

“Yes, let’s get going then.” Koume began to climb up and out of the Panther from the radio operator’s side, the Panther’s owner following behind her. Then, Peter suddenly tripped on something, causing him to fall right onto Koume’s back.

“A-ahh, sorry…” Peter began to get up, but then he felt something soft and squishy.  _ What the? _ Then he squeezed it.

“Mm!” Koume moaned cutely. “P-Peter, your touching my-” Koume blushed hard.

“Wait, what?” Peter looked over Koume’s shoulder, and saw that his hands were quite firmly grabbing her ample breasts. “AHH!” Peter’s hands and himself flew off of her like she was made of hot iron, but this was stopped by Peter hitting his head against the inner hull of his Panther. “OW!”

“You really think Koume’s in there commander?”

Maho shrugged, but her answer was as sure as a German sniper taking aim. “Koume’s been hanging out with Peter for the past few days, and they seem pretty close now. If I had to guess, she went into the forest to look for him…” Maho’s stoic expression was briefly crossed by one a protective older sibling or mother would get when they find out their daughter/sibling has a boyfriend. “Anyways, let's get going Erika. Who knows what could happen…” Walking forwards for about three minutes, they came into a clearing, just as a familiar pair did as well. It was Peter and Koume, and Maho and Erika stared for a moment.

Then, Erika spoke up in a very impatient voice. “Where were you!? You left and we were planning to come over and visit, then we find that you're gone with no note or anything!” Erika was really sounding like an older sibling or a mother.

“Koume.”

“Y-Yes commander?”

Maho looked at Peter and Koume’s intertwined hands, then at Peter, who still wasn’t wearing an undershirt. “What were you doing with him?”

Koume and Peter started for a moment. Then they looked at each other. Then they both blushed and immediately broke out into a storm of stuttering what had actually happened, and not what a dirty-minded person would think of.


	39. Making Amends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter about making amends with enemies

Emma, Bailey, Emma’s Loader, Samantha, or just Sam, and Emma’s Gunner, Eva, all sat around, waiting in Kay’s Office. It was a nice office, with a polished wooden floor and shutter windows, complimented by Kay’s desk, simple yet nice. Her chair was a large leather one that looked to be very soft, and around the room were some red couches. Despite it being a nice office, and a nice day outside, the mood was very subdued. The shutters were closed, meaning only the minimal amount of light was inside, and Kay was pacing around, muttering something about, “How could this have happened?” under her breath, reminding the four members of the crew of what had happened just the day prior. A real shell had been mixed in with the Sensha-do shells, and when Peter fired on Emma’s Easy Eight, it went straight through the front plate like butter and a hot knife, causing an engine fire that detonated the whole tank. Faber had apologized for the incident and the oversight, but what bothered the Saunders girls the most was the fact that Peter hadn’t reappeared in the slightest. Besides Kay and the already mentioned girls were Naomi and Alisa, who also sat around waiting. What were they waiting for? No one knew, just that they all happened to be in the office together that day when the door opened quietly. “Maho, Erika. What’s up?”

The commander and vice-commander of Kuromorimine nodded or waved a little. Maho turned to the doorway. “Peter, you can come in now.” And in walked Peter, properly dressed in his uniform, but instead of leaving out a cap, he wore a German field gray M43 cap. Peter walked a bit stiffly, as he held his left arm to stop it from swinging around, reminding Bailey of how she tried to murder him with a shovel. Following him was Koume, who stayed close to him.

An uncomfortable silence quickly descended upon the office as soon as the doors closed. The Saunders girls had mixed feelings, not knowing whether to be angry at him or to feel relieved he had reappeared. Emma, Bailey, Sam, and Eva all felt different levels of contempt. Emma was bitter that despite it being an accident, her precious Easy Eight was now a smoldering wreck. Bailey was angry that it was Peter’s decision to fire when he should’ve been able to tell the difference between a Sensha-do shell and a live shell that put her best friend, Maya, in the hospital. Kay, Naomi, and Alisa all stared at him. Then, Peter bowed. “I’m very sorry for what happened yesterday. I do indeed know the difference between our live shells and the ones used for Panzerfahren, and it was my decision for my loader to still use it. Because of my oversight, one of you is in the hospital, and one of your tanks is completely destroyed.” Peter paused for a moment, remembering how he had broken down at the sight of the destroyed Easy Eight burning and one of its crew bleeding out in the grass. “So...I’m sorry.”

Silence fell on the office again, giving Kay the time to x-ray Peter. “Well...what’s done is done.” Kay began. “We can replace the Easy Eight anyways, so thank you for your apology.”

“You  _ did _ hurt me friends, and my best friend is in the hospital now. But...it was an accident, and I can tell you’re being sincere. I’ll be sure to tell Maya that you apologized.” Bailey stood up, and walked over to Peter. She held out her hand to shake, which Peter did. The rest of the Saunders girls in the office nodded, acknowledging Peter’s sincere apology over the incident. In return, Peter swept off his hat, clicked his boots together, and saluted them.


	40. Banzai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TOTSUGEKI!  
> *immediately gets shot*

“Rabbit Team? That’s what you're called, right?”

Azusa jumped as the unfamiliar yet familiar voice buzzed in her microphone. “Ah, yes sir!”

“Gotcha, thanks. Right, what to do...Looks like that IJA Team could send their tanks round’ this flank and through the cliff, try and see if you can’t cover it.”

“Alright, we’ll take a look. Thanks Mr. Nathans.”

Willy grunted. “Yea, don’t sweat it.” He sat comfortably underneath a tent canopy, a WW2 American style radio in front of him. “Ugh, why did I say I’d advise command…” he groaned, rubbing his bearded face.  _ Oh wait, it’s because of those damn high school freshman girls, that’s what. They wouldn’t stop bugging me to at least try commanding. Welp. At least I should try and do my best or something, right? _ Next to him was Daniel and Nathan. The former was watching the match with great interest from a screen, while the latter was poring over a map of the area. It was a relatively flat area dominated with small rolling hills, but other than that it was a perfectly flat plains area save for a few rock formations at the skirts of the battle area. “Hey Nathan, what did they say that Jap school does again for tactics?”

“Technically they’re all Japanese, be more specific.”

“You know what I meant damn it, I meant the Imperial Japanese Army themed school!”

“You mean Chi-Ha-Tan?”

“Yeah, what’s their tactics like!?”

“Well, they mostly consist of suicide charges, shouting banzai, like the actual IJA in the Pacific. But according to what Saunders said, they’ve been using hit and run attacks lately, so they’re effectiveness has gone up. Apparently that’s how Saunders lost against them, and for the most part Chi-Ha-Tan only has Japanese Infantry tanks.”

“Damn. Sounds like one big ol’ nightmare then.” Willy scoffed. “Maybe Ooarai will get lucky and all they’ll have to do is shoot at a moving line, ha!”

“What about the Rabbit Team? You  _ did _ send them out to cover the flanks. By themselves.”

“Ah crap.”

Azusa looked around the area with the rangefinder atop the M3 Lee. So far, no enemy tanks. “Commander Miho, we don’t see any enemies so far. What about you guys?”

Miho’s voice buzzed. “Well, we’re currently fighting against a frontal assault from Chi-Ha-Tan. They might try and flank us though, so keep a close eye out!”

“Roger that Miss Nishizumi!” Azusa dropped into the M3 Lee’s main body, looking around at her team. “Alright, so far there’s no Chi-Ha-Tan tanks yet-” just then, a Type 95 Ha-Go accompanied by a Type 97 Shinhoto rolled around the rock formation wall. The two tanks stopped to aim. “Shoot!” The M3 Lee’s gunners, Ayumi and Aya, shot Azusa amused looks. “Y-Yeah, open fire!” The 37mm and 75mm gun of the M3 Lee roared to life for the first time in the match, the 37mm missing just barely, but the 75mm shell hit the Shinhoto dead on, popping up it’s white flag. “Yes!” Azusa cheered, pumping her fist, her crew and fellow first-years doing the same. Then, to their shock, the Type 95 Ha-Go did the one thing Chi-Ha-Tan was known to never do. It retreated.

“Wait, Chi-Ha-Tan is actually retreating?” Ayumi wondered aloud.

“That’s a first!” Karina cheered in her peppy voice. However, the feeling of jubilee was cut short when the Type 95 returned, and it wasn’t alone. Following it were three Type 97 Chi-Has, and one larger tank the Rabbit Team didn’t recognize.

Yuuki turned on the M3 Lee American Radio. “This is the Rabbit Team, approaching us are three Type 97s, a Type 95 Ha-Go and a larger tank we don’t recognize!”

“A larger tank?” Saori flipped through a book filled with different WW2-Era tanks and their specs. “Yukari-san, do you think it’s something like a Type 3 Chi-Nu?”

“No, Azusa-san would be able to recognize it,” Yukari grunted as she loaded in a 75mm AP shell. “It might be something like a Type 4 Chi-To, can you ask them how long the gun looks?”

“Rabbit Team, how long is the gun?”

“Very long!”

“It’s like pinocchio!” Saori heard of the childish Freshman pipe up.

“Oh yeah, definitely a Type 4 Chi-To. It’s got up to 75mms of armor, a top speed of 45km/h and a long barreled 75mm gun!” Just as Saori began to radio all this info to the Rabbit Team, the Type 4 Chi-To fired. The brand new Chi-Ha-Tan was now in its first ever battle, it’s baptism of fire. The large 75mm shell barely missed, striking the earth to the right of the M3 Lee. The M3 Lee returned fire with all it’s guns, but the 75mm hit one of the Type 97 Chi-Has instead and the 37mm gun, as it turned out, was too weak.

“Aiee!” Karina began to push into reverse, but Azusa put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, we can do this! Karina, reverse us just behind the rock formation!”

In the Type 4 Chi-To, it’s commander, Hosomi with her famous victory roll style hair cut, was whooping in triumph. “We’ve got Ooarai on the run! This new tank is doing Chi-Ha-Tan wonders! Finally, we can regain our school’s honor!”

“Calm down Hosomi.” Her gunner said.

“I just can’t though! Let’s charge their flanks!” With that, the Type 4 Chi-To began to pick up considerable speed, quickly getting up to it’s 45 km/h speed. Earlier, they had seen the M3 Lee duck behind the rock formation. Then, they passed by a bunch of bushes and shrubbery, and it was suddenly blown away by the M3 Lee charging down right into the Type 4 Chi-To, ramming it. “What the-!?” before Hosomi could react, it fired a 75mm shell right into the Type 4’s flank, taking it out of the match, before it ducked behind the larger IJA Medium tank, preventing it’s back up, the Type 95 Ha-Go and the three Type 97 Chi-Has from firing upon it.

From their spot underneath the canopy, Daniel and Nathan oohed at the M3 Lee’s maneuver. With his sharp eyes, Daniel quickly picked apart the Rabbit Team’s plan. “Well well well, that’s one way to use the environment to your advantage, ain’t it?” Nathan nodded.

“There’s a small break in between the rocks covered by bushes and trees, so they flanked the IJA tank using it, and by taking cover behind it they’re stopping its teammates from firing on themselves. What about you Willy? What’cha think?”

Willy tittered. “Smart, definitely, but they shoulda just waited for back-up. They can probably spare that French Char B1, it ain’t doing anything!”

“Well, it  _ is _ on the other side of the area, and last time I checked the Char B1 has an abysmal speed compared to something like a Kraut Panzer, so I don’t think it’d make it.”

Miho briefly ducked into the cupola of her Panzer IV H when a shell blew up nearby, throwing up dirt and shrapnel. “Rabbit Team, how’re you?”

Azusa responded immediately. “Good! We took out the enemy Type 4 and a few others!”

“Good job, keep it up!” Miho encouraged before she went back to giving commands to the rest of the Oorai Team, who, alongside the Anglerfish Team, were in a line formation, holding back the slow and strategic Chi-Ha-Tan advance. For the most part, they only had to deal with a few flankers while the rest didn’t have the firepower to knock any of them out. Then, a new tank suddenly arrived, flanked and protected by several of its comrades as a sort of meatshield.

“New tank spotted! Yukari-san, it looks like a tank destroyer, what do you think it is?”

Yukari popped her head out of the loader’s hatch to see. “It’s a Type 3 Ho-Ni III, an IJA Tank destroyer with a 75mm gun! It has very thin armor though, so that’s why Chi-Ha-Tan is meatshielding it!”

“Alright, thank you Yukari!” Yukari blushed at the compliment, before she went back into the Panzer IVs turret to load more 75mm shells. “Everyone, concentrate fire on that tank destroyer! It’s being surrounded by several of it’s comrades, so you’ll have to pick your way through!” Everyone gave an unanimous “Roger that!” before they turned their turrets(in the case of the TDs, their entire tank)to begin raining down fire upon the Type 3 Ho-Ni III. It was a flag tank battle, and in this case, the Mark IV was the flag tank, thanks to its ability to hold off flankers on both sides. Also, on a side note, Ogin removed the pirate flag, because as many had pointed out it just gave away their position and looked stupid.

“Fire!” Momo pulled the trigger and a 75mm shell flew from the Hetzer(38)t...and missed by a mile margin.

“Momo-chan, you missed...again.” Yuzu muttered.

“Agh! Just you wait, I will hit something!” Momo screamed. Meanwhile, Anzu just laughed and ate more sweet potatoes.

Momo fired the gun again, and somehow the shot veered off so badly it hit one of the tall rock formations, doing nothing...Before the rocks cascaded down, burying a few Chi-Ha-Tan tanks and stopping an entire column from trying to sneak around the edges of the field. “Yes, I told you!” Momo cheered in achievement. And Anzu just laughed at her PR Manager’s jubilee, which was cut short by a 75mm shell ricocheting off the front of the Hetzer. The Ho-Ni III was now in an effective firing range, and it’s meatshield wasn’t letting up.

Suddenly, an idea came to Erwin. Turning to Caesar, she ordered her, “Load a smoke shell!” The Roman history buff raised an eyebrow, but she did it anyways, shoving a smoke shell into the 75mm gun breech. Saemonza fired again, right into the Chi-Ha-Tan formation, and smoke quickly erupted around the WW2 era Japanese tanks. “Good, now they're blinded! Kommandant Nishizumi, we’ll be breaking formation for a little bit!”

“Eh? H-Hold on-”

“[Vorwarts!] To victory!” Erwin commanded in an almost cocky fashion. The Stug III lurched forwards down the small slope, quickly catching speed. A few Chi-Ha-Tan tanks tried to stop them, firing their guns, but either they missed or the shots scraped off the top, just before the Hippo Team began to release smoke to more properly mask themselves. Getting into a drift, they got the gun right into the Chi-Ha-Tan meatshield, and out of the Type 3 Ho-Ni IIIs firing arc. “[Feuer!]” Saemonza fired the gun, before Caesar immediately slammed another shell into the breach. Then another shot and another load, and then one final shot. When the smoke cleared, the Type 3 Ho-Ni III now had a white flag raised from it’s superstructure, signaling its defeat. “Yes!” Then the Stug III was immediately sniped by a massive 105mm shell to its flank.

Miho watched as a massive tank crested the hill, before she instinctively asked Yukari what tank it was. It was large, with multiple turrets, and based by the shells bouncing off of it, very heavily armored. Yukari racked her memory for a single second before she remembered. “Ah! It’s the O-I Super Heavy tank! 200mm of armor at the front, a 105mm gun, a 47mm gun as a secondary armament, and a top speed of 25km/h!” Miho thanked Yukari, causing Yukari to blush and rub herself for a moment before she yet again went back to loading shells.

“Duck Team, Rabbit Team, come back! Chi-Ha-Tan has a super heavy tank!”

“Roger!”

“Gotcha, senpai!”

Willy remarked, “A Super-Heavy tank eh? Looks like they’re in for quite the fight, those Ooarai girls.”

“Apparently, they defeated a Maus with an unnecessarily fancy stunt, but it did work out in the end.” Willy raised a questioning eyebrow. “Their Hetzer first rammed the Maus, lifting it up, then the Type 89 stopped the turret from rotating, allowing the Panzer IV to destroy its engine. The Hetzer died of damage though, and before that, when the German School unveiled the Maus, it took out the Char B1 and the Stug.”

Willy scoffed. “Unnecessarily fancy for sure. All you need is a big ass gun and that’s it.”

“Well, last time I checked, they don’t have a UHLS or any major big guns in general.”

“Still, I’d just outrun it or outlast it. Way better.”

“All right…” Nathan went back to watching the match and analyzing the movements of Chi-Ha-Tan. He watched as Oorai put their Super-Heavy killer plan into action, which started off with them blowing off the tracks of the O-I, before flanking it, then finally destroying it with close range shots to the sides. And fortunately, the O-I was the Chi-Ha-Tan flag tank, ending the match in Ooarai’s favor.


End file.
